Somewhere around this date, every month, we look at the stats from various web analytics companies, and check how the most important social media and social networking sites are doing. And don’t get us wrong: these stats can be biased (Compete, for example, is US-biased) and they can be wrong (sometimes they will report a fall or decline in traffic even when the reality is quite the opposite). But when we see a trend that goes on for four months, there must be something to it. And that’s exactly what’s been happening to Twitter: according to Compete, it has flatlined for the last four months, showing absolutely no growth as far as uniques, visits, or rank go. And it’s not just Compete: Quantcastpaints pretty much the same picture, and Twitter CEO Evan Williams has recently admitted that their traffic has stalled in the US. It’s interesting, because it’s hard to find a reason why this is happening. Twitter has entered the pop culture, it’s been the web buzzword of the year, everyone from NFL players to rock stars is tweeting. We’ve seen hundreds of exciting services and ideas built around Twitter in the past two years. Twitter has been adding a lot of new, important features lately, the latest of which has been the retweet function. That’s got to count for something, right=In some ways, Twitter is more mainstream than Facebook. And yet Facebook is growing again(despite its huge audience size), and Twitter is not. You can chalk it up to Miley Cyrus’ departure, to some cosmic anomaly, or you could just say that Twitter was always too geeky for the wide mainstream audience. But it’s odd for a service to grow so explosively and to be featured in the media so much, and then to stop growing all at a sudden without a clear reason. I still believe that this won’t matter in the long run; Twitter aims to be a ubiquitous service – the new SMS, if you will – that acts almost as a part of the net’s infrastructure. It doesn’t have to be popular, it merely needs to be there, behind the curtain, sending your tweets back and forth. After all, it has a search deal with both Bing and Google, and that’s bound to drive some traffic their way. However, I’m interested in your theories on why its traffic has stopped growing. Is it just an anomaly? Have users grown tired of it? Has it failed to engage a certain key demographic, for example teens? Please give us your theories in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Norebbo. Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, iStockphotoTags: compete, twitter

  It’s been more than a year since Bill Gates stepped downfrom day-to-day operations at Microsoft to focus on his philanthropic efforts through the Gates Foundation. In that time, Gates has traveled the world (in the past week alone, he’s been in China, India, and today, New York), strategizing the best use of his enormous fortune and that of his foundation, which, also includes $31 billion of Warren Buffett’s money.Tonight at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Gates shared a progress report of sorts in an interview with Matthew Bishop of The Economist, which also included some broader questions from the audience.What Gates Is Trying to DoRather than spread his money over dozens of causes, Gates is focusing on a few specific issues, where he hopes his hands-on approach and vast resources will make a significant difference. In his case, those causes include providing necessary medicine and equipment to help stop the spread of disease, finding vaccines for the likes Malaria and AIDS, and improving education, both in the US and around the world.As for how he measures the success, at least on the healthcare side of things, it’s pretty simple: fewer people, especially children, dying. Gates is optimistic that the problems he’s focusing on can be significantly aleviated or outright solved within his lifetime. He doesn’t see an AIDS vaccine within the next 10 years, but thinks it’s possible within the next 20. He thinks by 2025, there’s a good chance that no one will have to die from (though the disease will likely still exist) Malaria. Gates executes in these areas by talking to scientists, deciding where to invest, and hoping that in the long-run, some of those investments pay off in the form of successful vaccines and cures. He says this isn’t dissimilar to his work at Microsoft, where investments in things like speech recognition and robotics wouldn’t yield any tangible bottom results for many years, if at all. Here’s a mapof where the Gates Foundation has issued grants to scientists around the world:Even more related to Gates’ history in the technology world, his vision for education revolves largely around online universities, where lectures would be available to all, and anyone can complete coursework and receive the same accreditation as someone who attends a four year university. In this area, Gates believes we’ll see significant progress within the next 5 years. Gates said if he could, he’d like to be able to use some of his resources to fight terrorism and nuclear proliferation, as well as rid African nations of corrupt governments. However, he doesn’t believe he’d be effective in those areas.On Philanthropy and Getting InvolvedBishop asked Gates about comments that the Microsoft founder had previously made about the relative stinginess of some of those in a position to give major amounts of money (i.e. – the Forbes 400), as well as the role that the financial crisis has played on philanthropy. Gates jokingly said that last he checked, the people on that list are still in a good position to give, but it’s not his interest to go recruit people into philanthropy. Looking around the globe, Gates is optimistic that emerging markets like China and India, where vast amounts of wealth are being created amongst the super rich, will eventually become #2 and #3 in the world in philanthropy, behind the US. As for those of us without billions of dollars to spare, Gates believes the best way to get involved is with a similar approach to his, albeit on a micro scale. His theme can be summarized as ridding the world of inequality – which for regular people, means finding an inequality that you care about and doing what you can to help, first locally, and then if you can, on a wider scale. Selective Sound BitesAsked if he thinks that two of the world’s richest men (him and Buffett) working together creates the lack of a competitor in philanthropic efforts akin to the likes of Larry Ellison or Steve Jobs from his Microsoft days, Gates says “the fact that Malaria kills people makes it a bit worse than what those guys did.â€� Moving on to the financial crisis, Gates offered a couple interesting pieces of commentary:(1) He’s not so sure the government should have a role in running private companies like AIG. For example, he thinks the whole “sales trip to the spa” fiasco is a perfect example not necessarily of corporate excess, but of why the whole thing is a dicey relationship.(2) He thinks the pay limits imposed on Wall Street were the biggest thing that’s ever been done to increase executive pay. Why? Because they’re simply finding other ways to compensate executives, like with stock options.Gates’ Closing AdviceIt’s hard to imagine a Bill Gates Q&A without someone in the audience asking for his business advice. And, sorry to tell you, there’s no cheap and easy secret to becoming a billionaire. Instead, Gates’ advice is not much different than that you’ve likely heard from countless other successful entrepreneurs: don’t fit the business to an economic opportunity, but find something you have a passion for and do it. Gates says that when he founded Microsoft, he was passionate about software, had been doing it for the better part of his life, and at the time, didn’t completely realize the enormity of the economic opportunity.In Case You Missed ItEarlier this year at TED, Gates touched on many of these same themes, while also offering the Web a memorable video moment by unleashing mosquitoes into the audience. It’s definitely worth a watch:Tags: bill gates, microsoft, philanthropy

  Just over a year ago, Apple launched the iPhone App Store, giving countless developers the ability to create dynamic apps on the iPhone mobile platform. And while over 100,000 appshave been created already, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses between Apple and 3rd party developers. Multiple iPhone app bannings, inconsistent app rules, and the Google Voice controversyhave all left a bad taste.It took long enough, but finally Apple’s taking steps to rectify the situation. A few days ago, Apple began to give developers a long overdue feature within its Dev Center website: the ability to track the status of apps submitted to Apple’s store.The new system is straightforward: when a developer logs into the Dev Center, he or she can see bulletins and status updates that discuss the app’s progress through the app store approval process, including “In Review,” “Waiting for Review,” and “Ready for Sale” updates. It also timestamps each note.While it’s a small step towards transparency, it shows that Apple has a willingness to work with developers to fix the app store’s problems, something we’ve doubted in the past. More changes, like a consistent and open policy on approvals and rejections, are still needed, but this is the direction Apple needs to go in order to improve the iPhone platform.[via Wired]Tags: app store, apple, iphone, iphone app store

  While PCs have been able to use Google’s Chrome browser for some time now, the rest of us Macs have been waiting patiently for a proper, non-developer build that we too can use. That day may be coming very soon.CNETis reporting that recent discussion in a Chrome mailing list points to an early December launch. We could be just weeks away from a beta version of Chrome for Mac.The Google group updatein question is light on details, but by requesting that developers update to support Browser Actions, it also suggests that a December launch date for a Mac version is fast approaching.Google Chrome’s product manager, Nick Baum, writes:“The extensions team has been working hard to get BrowserActions ready, andthey’re already working great on Windows and Linux. We’ve noticed that manyof you have updated your extensions to take advantage of the new UI. We’dlike to encourage the rest of you to do so as well!You can find the latest docs here:http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/browserAction.htmlWhy make the switch now? The earlier you switch, the more time you will haveto polish your experience for our Beta launch in early December. We realizethis means dropping Mac support for a couple of weeks, but we already havepeople working on that. If you prioritize the Windows and Linux versions,we’ll bring you cross-platform parity as soon as we can!”The post provides an interesting clue to the future of Google Chrome for Mac. We can only hope the early December beta launch date is accurate.Reviews: Chrome, Google Chrome, linuxTags: google chrome, mac

  Although it’s not yet live to everyone, a new Xbox LIVE Dashboard Update that adds social networking integrationswith Facebook, Twitter and last.fm is currently in preview mode to beta testers and will go live to the public in short order. Perhaps trying to play catchup with Microsoft, Sony apparently has plans to add its own Facebook integration to the company’s flagship PlayStation 3 console in a coming firmware update.Website Scrawl apparently found screenshotsburied deep within a publicly available section of Sony’s European website showing off some sort of native Facebook integration, as evidenced by a Facebook settings subsection located in the User Accounts section of the PS3’s cross-media bar (XMB) main navigation interface.Unfortunately it’s not terribly much to go on, and when pressed, Sony refused to comment on the leaked shots and Facebook integration rumour. However the screens do come from a legitimate Sony source, and it seems highly likely that they’d want to get in on some of the social media action considering they’re working diligently to portray the PlayStation 3 console as an all-in-one entertainment hub for the home.Are you a PS3 owner eager for more social media integration in your console? [via Joystiq]Reviews: FacebookTags: facebook, game consoles, gaming, playstation, playstation 3, PS3, sony

  Uh oh. It looks as if Twitter is being plagued by another DM spam attack. We’ve received a few ourselves, and plenty of Twitter users are taking to the medium to express that they too have received inordinate amounts of spam messages via direct messages. A quick search of “dm spam” on Twitter is yielding a bevy of results.The DM spam attack, presumably being spread by hacked Twitter accounts, contains unknown but dubious content, and we advise you to avoid clicking on anything that appears suspicious. Be on the look for tweets like, “hi, did you do this quiz thingy.”Should you believe that your account has been hacked, we recommend changing your Twitter password immediately.We’ve notified Twitter of the recent plague of direct message spam, and we’ll update this post when we know more. Until then, please leave a comment if you think you have additional information on this particular attack.Reviews: TwitterTags: spam, trending, twitter, twitter spam

  We already know well the dangers of Facebook: not only can it get you robbed, but it can land you in jail, whether thanks to careless profile updating at the scene of the crime or a bout of unwise poking. Now it appears the upside is Facebook can keep you out of jailas well. Nineteen-year-old Rodney Bradford’s Facebook update at 11:49a.m. on October 17 was accepted as a suitable alibi after he was arrested in connection with a mugging in Brooklyn. The district attorney subpeonaed Facebook, who verified that the status update was created from a computer at the address of Mr. Bradford’s father in Harlem, where the accused indicated he had been at the time of the robbery.After Facebook’s location confirmation, the charges against Bradford were dropped. Lawyer John Browning, who specializes in social networking and the law, said it is the first case he knows about where a Facebook update has served as alibi evidence. Others are a bit more wary of the precedent being set. John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Joseph Pollini notes, “With a username and password, anyone can input data in a Facebook page.” He says that teenagers are certainly savvy enough to set up an alibi ahead of time: “They watch television, the movies, there is a multitude of reasons why someone of that age would have the knowledge to do a crime like that.”With a plethora of location-based servicescoming online now it seems like we may run into similar cases even moreso in the future. What do you think, should Facebook updates be admissable evidence in court? Should location data on a social network be suitable evidence of alibi? Let us know in the comments.[via CNet]Image courtesy of davidsonscott15Reviews: FacebookTags: alibi, facebook, law, lbs, legal, location services, robbery, status updates

  Movie studios are none too happy by the growing decline in DVD sales. So, what’s their solution to the problem? Target the cheap movie rental companies like Netflix and Redbox and force their hand into delaying new movie rentals after release, which would give consumers no other choice than to purchase the DVDs.According to PaidContent, Redbox, the kiosk distributor, is fighting back with lawsuits, but Netflix is ready to deal.CEO Reed Hastings is apparently trying to barter with the studios and, in a recent earnings call, has been quoted as saying, “if we can agree on low enough pricing for delayed rental, it could potentially increase profits for everyone.”Another source is reporting that Netflix would delay rentals by a period of one month in exchange for paying 50% less for movies from studios. While we think this is a terrible idea for both Netflix and consumers, the Video Businessarticle makes an excellent point about why the movie distributor can afford the one month hit, while Redbox cannot.Netflix’s core business is catalog transactions, which make up about 70% of its revenue. That should help ease an introduction of a 30-day delay on new releases, since most Netflix customers are relatively more interested in older content. Redbox, with nearly 100% of its business in new releases, sees the delay as more oppressive to its operations.While we understand that studios are anxious to up their DVD sales, we believe this to be the worst way to go about solving the problem. Punishing consumers for an industry problem is a bad idea, and potentially creates a situation where more people are open to watching and downloading pirated movie content. Here’s hoping that Netflix rethinks this strategy.[via The Consumerist]Tags: movie rental, netflix

  The official Twitter Retweet rollout started last week, but yesterday Twitter ramped up the rollout process in order to give more Twitter users the native retweet feature. The semi-controversial new feature started popping up everywhere, and CEO Evan Williams took to his own blogto explain the why and the how behind the change.Today, however, it appears as if there’s trouble in the Twittersphere, as many users noticedearlier in the day that the retweet button had disappeared from their homepage. Now, we have confirmation from Twitter that the feature has been temporarily disabled.Here’s what the Twitter Status bloghad to say about the matter:“We’re working on a few problems related to the ongoing rollout. These should be resolved quickly and it will be back on for those who had the Retweet feature previously. And we’ll then continue the incremental rollout of this feature to everyone.”Reviews: TwitterTags: retweet, twitter

  Open Web Awards Nominations will remain open until 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, November 15th. Submit your nominations here.Social media has not only transformed how we communicate with each other, but it has even changed how we, as consumers, interact with brands, companies, and agencies. The old forms of customer serviceand customer relationships have been challengedby the direct and open access that Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media services have sparked.That’s why the #OpenWebAwards for Brands, Startups, Companies, and Agencies are so intriguing. It provides us a chance to recognize the companies that are leveraging social media in extraordinary ways. This year’s honors in the Brand category are diverse, including Best Brand use of Facebook, Best Corporate Blog, Best Brand Use of Twitter, and Favorite Social media Gadget.Luckily for you, there are a ton of choices. Over the years we’ve covered some of the best brands on Twitter, the top performing brands on Facebook, some of the smartest brands in social media, and leaders in YouTube marketing. And this only scratches the surface of how brands have utilized social media as a positive force.There is no shortage of brands, startups, companies, or agencies to nominate for this years awards. It’s up to you to figure out who deserves them the most.Vote for your favoritesWe’d like to know your choices for Best Brand Use of Facebook, Best Brand Use of YouTube, Best Brand Use of Twitter, Best Corporate Blog, Social Media Ad Campaign, Social Media Gadget, Social Media Agency, and Best Non-Profit Use of Social Mediain this year’s Open Web Awards.The nominating process is simple, just visit the Open Web Awardssite, sign in with Twitter or Facebook, and tell us your favorites. Nominations will remain open until 11:59 PM, ET on Sunday, November 15th.Some of the leaders in the Brand/Startup/Company/Agency categories so far are (in no particular order):Best Brand Use of Facebook- The Children’s Place- Newegg.com- Comcast4College- Dogs Trust- Zynga- Playfish- Pet Society- Bigzig Connect- Facebuko- MousehuntBest Brand Use of YouTube- TotallyTrucked- Coldwell Banker- Shane Dawson- Internet Killed Television- Smosh- YTwatchdog- The Hardy Show- SHAYTARDS- BooneOakley- Open UniversityBest Brand Use of Twitter- @TrueBloodHBO- Crayola Creativitycast- @NHLBlackhawks- @LiveLifeSolid- @Philips_vs- @140hours- #socialmedia- @Smartcares- @Digsby- @KiWeetsBest Corporate Blog- Playstation Blog- Grown Up Thinking by Mr Youth- uTest- OkTrends- SoGoPro- ArcelorMittal: The Inside Story- Precision Time- Picnik Blog- Kikikannibal- Milford Equity Living NYCBest Non-Profit Use of Social Media- Spirit Jump- Alex’s Lemonade- A Billion for A Billion- Frougal Dougal- Lupus Foundation of America- PETA- Voices of Survivors- Sports Grants Foundation- Space Tweep Society- ThankA SoldierSocial Media Ad Campaign- Grasshopper 5,000- Comcast4College- MadMenYourself- People’s Choice Awards on MySpace- Sarah Ezekiel- Hallow-Dega- Fiesta Movement- Exploiting Chaos- Flowersophy- #BeatCancerSocial Media Agency- Mr Youth- Pixel Farm- Jam- TheKBuzz- Rocket XL- SocialMedia8- Synhergy Entertainment- 360i- Room 214- Rockfish InteractiveSocial Media Gadget- Digsby- AddThis- ShareThis- AddToAny- Property-Bee- Wetoku- Tigerbow- SocialGo- Yoono- WiseStampContinue to nominate your favorites at Mashable.com/OWAThanks to our Partner: MOTOBLURMOTOBLURfrom Motorola was built expressly for the way people communicate today. It’s the only service that automatically delivers and organizes your conversations, contacts and content from all your favorite sites and sources in easy-to-manage streams. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messages, Gmail or work e-mail, MOTOBLUR keeps track of it all and serves it up on a customizable home screen and integrates it through the phone. Plus, with MOTOBLUR you have peace of mind, because all of your info is backed up and secure. Discover MOTOBLUR on Motorola CLIQ available at T-Mobile. It’s time to spend less time managing life and more time living it.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JPA1999Reviews: Digsby, Facebook, Gmail, MySpace, Twitter, Wisestamp, Yoono, YouTube, iStockphoto, pet societyTags: brands, open web awards, owa

  One of the keys to Firefox’s continued success as a browser has been its support of browser extensions. Always looking to expand its extensions library, Mozilla introduced an experimental program called Jetpack in May, which allows developers to create add-ons for Firefox, even if they have limited programming experience.Extensions are built using CSS, Javascript and HTML, which means that more people can build them and install them without restarting the web browser. What Mozilla is ultimately planning for Jetpack isn’t clear, but we’d place a wager on some of the technologies making their way into Mozilla’s future mobile browser. Today, Mozilla has launchedthe Jetpack Gallery, which will make it easy for users to find and try out Jetpack add-ons created by the community.In the six months since Jetpack’s introduction, the Mozilla Labs team has put a lot of work into beefing up Jetpack’s API and capabilities. Just yesterday, Jetpack 0.6was released, which adds the ability to add and modify menus and have secure preferences.Looking at the Jetpack Gallery, you won’t find many Jetpacks (just 19 at the time of publication), but looking at what types of Jetpacks are available, it’s easy to see the potential of this sort of add-on system.Already Jetpacks for easy image editing and Twitter usage are available. Jetpack is still very much a work in progress, but it’s exciting to see what can be achieved. Have you played with any of the Jetpacks? Let us know!Reviews: TwitterTags: Firefox, jetpack, jetpack gallery, mozilla

  When we first wrote about Elizabeth Lambert — the New Mexico soccer player whose physical behavior on the field was caught on tape, subsequently posted to YouTube, and resulted in an indefinite suspension— the YouTube clip was nearing one million views.Now there are more than 150 clips of the incident online, and just six days after being posted to web, they’ve amassed a total of more than 10.2 million views and 24,000 comments.Interestingly enough, Visible Measures, a video analytics company, claims that the Elizabeth Lambert clip rose to viral status faster than both JK Wedding Dance and Balloon Boy.The chart above highlights each clips’ video view count after six days of being posted online. According to their blog poston the clip’s remarkable online performance, “Benchmarking Lambert’s performance against recent viral video phenomena Balloon Boy and JK Wedding Dance reveals how widespread the controversy has become. Balloon Boy and JK were media giants in their own right, yet Lambert tops both of them (normalized at six days).”Sure the video shows excessively aggressive and violent behavior, but the fact that it’s accruing video views faster than the other viral sensations is somewhat of a shocker.We’ve embedded the clip below just in case you missed the incident that everyone’s been talking about and watching online.Tags: elizabeth lambert, viral video, visible measures

  Back in July, we wrote about Face.com’sPhoto Tagger app for Facebook, which was then in beta. The successor to the popular Photo Finderapp, Photo Tagger lets you tag all photos in an album in-bulk and automatically publish those results right to Facebook.Photo Tagger is now out of beta and available for free. You can check out the app’s Facebook page here.In addition to making tagging faster and more streamlined, Photo Tagger also utilizes the Face Alerts system. Instead of only getting a notification when you are tagged in a photograph by a Facebook user, Face Alerts can identify even untagged photos. You can then visit those photos and confirm (or untag, if it’s something you want to hide from mom) your presence.Face.com says it has recognized more than 5 million faces in Facebook, which is impressive for a company that has only been around since March.We love the idea of bulk tagging and believe that Face Alerts to Facebook make the processthat more efficient. With millions of photos uploaded to Facebook each month, it’s great to see tools like this simplify what can be an overwhelming process.Reviews: FacebookTags: face.com, facebook, photo tagger, photo tagging, Photos

  Technology powerhouse Hewlett Packard (HP) has just announced that it has struck a deal to acquire 3Com, one of the world’s leading networking hardware and software companies, for a giant $2.7 billion price tag. The deal, if it goes through, will bring HP into direct competition with Cisco and its networking business. 3com builds WiFi access points, networking switches, routers, and IP voice systems that countless businesses rely on every day. It also comes two years after a failed acquisition by Bain Capital.The full press release from HP is included below:HP and 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS) (“3Comâ€�) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase 3Com, a leading provider of networking switching, routing and security solutions, at a price of $7.90 per share in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $2.7 billion. The terms of the transaction have been approved by the HP and 3Com boards of directors.This combination will transform the networking industry and underscore HP’s next-generation data center strategy built on the convergence of servers, storage, networking, management, facilities and services. The resulting business outcome will help customers simplify the network, deploy a unique and innovative edge-to-core network fabric for the enterprise and improve IT service delivery capabilities, all delivered with best-in-class price-performance.“Companies are looking for ways to break free from the business limitations imposed by a networking paradigm that has been dominated by a single vendor,â€� said Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers and Networking, HP. “By acquiring 3Com, we are accelerating the execution of our Converged Infrastructure strategy and bringing disruptive change to the networking industry. By combining HP ProCurve offerings with 3Com’s extensive set of solutions, we will enable customers to build a next-generation network infrastructure that supports customer needs from the edge of the network to the heart of the data center.â€�“Our extensive product line and innovative technology together with HP’s breadth and scale will expand our global opportunity,â€� said Bob Mao, chief executive officer, 3Com. “3Com’s networking products are based on a modern architecture which has been designed to offer better performance, require less power and eliminate administrative complexity when compared against current network offerings. Our products are enterprise proven and widely deployed in the world’s largest banks, manufacturers, Internet service providers, public utilities and retailers.â€�The acquisition of 3Com will dramatically expand HP’s Ethernet switching offerings, add routing solutions and significantly strengthen the company’s position in China – one of the world’s fastest-growing markets – via the H3C offerings. In addition, the combination will add a large and talented research and development team in China that will drive the acceleration of innovations to HP’s networking solutions.3Com also brings to HP best-of-breed network security capabilities through its TippingPoint portfolio. For the past four years, TippingPoint has been the leader in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrantâ€� in its evaluation of leading network security products. Approximately 30 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies have already deployed TippingPoint intrusion prevention systems.“We are confident that we can run our entire global business of 300,000-plus employees, including our next-generation data centers, entirely on the new HP networking solutions,â€� said Randy Mott, executive vice president and chief information officer, HP. “Based on our experience and extensive testing of 3Com’s products, we are planning to undertake a global rollout within HP as soon as possible after the completion of the acquisition.â€�Under the terms of the merger agreement, 3Com stockholders will receive $7.90 for each share of 3Com common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of 3Com’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of calendar 2010.HP anticipates that the transaction will be slightly dilutive to fiscal 2010 non-GAAP earnings.Tags: 3Com, acquisition, HP