Microsoft Corp is expected to post a quarterly profit that misses its own target and announce thousands of job cuts this week as the global economic slump hurts even the technology industry's biggest players.

Analysts on average put Microsoft's profit at 49 cents a share for the quarter ended December 31, which includes a U.S. holiday shopping season that has been called the worst in at least four decades. The Redmond, Washington-based company had forecast a per-share profit of 51 cents to 53 cents for the quarter.

Jerry Shen, president of Asustek Computer disclosed that the company's current stockpiled inventory is worth NT$40 billion (US$1.19 billion). Now as bad as this situation is for ASUS I'd love to see a picture of that warehouse!

Shen noted that the company is doing all it can to clear its inventory and expects levels to return to normal by the end of February, however, Shen remains conservative over with whether Asustek can be profitable in the first quarter of 2009. Shen expects Asustek's LCD monitor, motherboard and graphics card inventories to be completely cleared by the end of March.

Video:BFG GTX 285 OCX 1GB Video Card Review @ Hardware CanucksSamsung SyncMaster 2463UW Review at Overclockers OnlineNvidia GeForce GTX 285 @ VR-ZoneASUS EAH4870 Matrix 512MB Video Card Review @ Legit ReviewsBFG GTX 295 OCX @ NeoseekerSapphire HD4670 Review @ OCCASUS GeForce GTX 285/295 @ Bootdaily.comMotherboards and Chipsets:ASRock N7AD-SLI Socket 775 nForce 740 SLI Motherboard Review @ ThinkComputers.orgGigabyte’s GA-EX58-UD4P and DS4 mobos @ bit-techGigabyte EP45-DS3R @ t-breakMemory and Storage:ACard’s

We’re launching a brand new Cameras / Gadgets channel on HotHardware today, and with it we have a full evaluation of the Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR Camera. Whether you’re an amateur photographer or someone who’s more serious about photography, a D-SLR can provide a lot of benefits over a simple point and shoot camera. With a D-SLR, you’ll get faster shooting speeds, better optics (and therefore a better quality picture), the ability to change lenses for ultimate flexibility, complete control over image exposure,

Although there is no mention that the product even exists on Corsair’s own Website, U.K.-based online retailer, Scan, purports to now be selling a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) from Corsair. As a matter of fact, Corsair’s site makes no mention that the company has even entered into the SSD market; albeit, such a move is a logical choice for a memory manufacturer, as other memory makers, such as Crucial, Kingston, and OCZ, have already made the plunge into SSDs. This new mystery drive is listed on Scan as the

On Tuesday US-CERT, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, warned that the instructions given by Microsoft to disable AutoRun, a protective measure to prevent infection by the “Downadup” worm, are ineffective and erroneous. AutoRun, when enabled, tells Windows to automatically run any program specified in the “autorun.inf” on a removeable storage device (like s flash drive). “Downadup” creates an autorun.inf file at the root directory of any USB-based device it finds connected to the infected machine.

A Bloomberg report citing “a person familiar with the matter” indicates that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun a probe into the disclosures made by Apple regarding Steve Jobs’ health, to determine if in fact investors may have been misled. The “Steve Jobs Health Story” has taken on a life of its own, in a soap opera-ish way. First it was noted at last year’s WWDC conference that Jobs look gaunt and tired. There were multiple denials over any health issues by Apple and Jobs, including a December

In response to Intel’s recent price cut on select quad-core and dual-core processors, AMD has slashed prices on its new AMD Phenom II processors, which have only been available for two weeks. Apparently the price drop isn’t solely as a result of Intel, however. It appears that the price reduction was also a reaction to the low demand of high tech products globally. After the price cut, the Phenom II X4 920 chip’s price is $195 and the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition processor runs $225. These prices are 15-17%

If you’re hooked on the convenience of satellite radio, be warned: your bill may see an increase in the coming months. Customer support representatives are now confirming a rate increase for Sirius XM services. There will be a $2 increase for additional subscriptions and a fee of $2.99 for the online Internet radio service (which is currently free with a subscription). On the upside, all Internet subscriptions will now feature the 128k premium feed. At this point, no channel lineup changes or new content offerings

Intel Corporation today disclosed plans to restructure some of its manufacturing operations and align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions. The company will consolidate and streamline some older capacity without impacting the deployment of new, leading-edge 45-nanometer and 32-nanometer manufacturing capacity. This factory shutdown is said to affect between 5,000 and 6,000 workers.

The company plans to close two existing assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia and one in Cavite, Philippines, and will halt production at Fab 20, an older 200mm wafer fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Ore. Additionally, wafer production operations will end at the D2 facility in Santa Clara, Calif. The actions at the four sites, when combined with associated support functions, are expected to affect between 5,000 and 6,000 employees worldwide. However, not all employees will leave Intel; some may be offered positions at other facilities. The actions will take place between now and the end of 2009.