You know it's a slow news day when the Wall Street Journal and San Jose Mercury News front their tech sections with the story of an Intel conference call. Granted, the chip giant's midquarter analyst update is closely watched as a bellwether of the tech sector, but this story needed caffeine.

Intel's news was not all that bad, which come to think of it may make it newsworthy in these days when the chip industry is "along the bottom," in the ringing phrase of a Needham & Co. analyst quoted by the Merc. At least we didn't hit bottom and sink into the mud. What Intel did was to narrow its projected quarterly revenue, from $6.3 billion-$6.9 billion to $6.3 billion-$6.7 billion. You in the back, wake up there. The chipmaker's stock dropped 6.2% in anticipation of the conference call, and rose 4.8% after the forecast was aired, according to CNET's News.com and the Merc. The reason? "People had talked themselves into an almighty funk," an analyst confided to the Wall Street Journal's scribe.

All the accounts looked forward to Intel's upcoming developers' forum, picking out different futures to highlight. We liked the Journal's choice of a previously disclosed plan to "make circuitry for wireless communications a free feature on most Intel chips." It's called Radio Free Intel. News.com noted the prediction of a senior VP in Intel's communications group that the Internet "will suffer brownouts next year as Web traffic outpaces the installed carrier infrastructure." Now that woke us up. - Keith Dawson

Intel narrows revenue forecast
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/4015338.htm

Intel forecasts a gloomy fall
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-956776.html

Intel Lowers Its Forecast For 3rd-Quarter Revenue
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1031169946538462555,00.html
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