Reviews
The Gmail team is making it easier for new users to import all of their old contacts and email addresses.
Mountain House (CA) - The story of RED reminds me of a story from the automotive industry. Back in 1963, Ferruccio Lamborghini complained to Enzo Ferrari about the quality of the clutch on his Ferrari 250 GT, and Enzo angrily answered: "You build tractors. How can you know how to manufacture a sports car?". Then, Ferruccio decided to beat Il Commendatore in his own game, and the tractor manufacturer turned into a company that builds fantastic sports cars.
Microsoft has released a recovery tool for Sidekick users who are still without their data following last week"s outage.
Spansion has unveiled product roadmaps for its MirrorBit HD-SIM family, its next-generation flash memory-based SIM card solutions. The Spansion HD-SIM solution is designed to offer increased flexibility, performance, and storage capacity to help mobile network operators, content, and application vendors create new differentiating services for their customers, says Spansion.
Fears that a Microsoft digital music player and service could imperil the iPod"s market dominance are overblown, according to Shaw Wu, an analyst for American Technology Research in a report on Monday.
Nethzah Inc, is a leading provider of CRM (Customer Relationship Management), an integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization
Several Taiwan-based panel makers are planning to roll out new TV panels for the entry-level segment based on twisted nematic (TN) technology in the second half of this year, with the goal of boosting demand in developing markets for 30" and-under TV panels, sources said.
Chicago (IL) - Nvidia will launch its Quad-SLI technology, which will enable to run four GeForce graphics chips in one computer system, on 22 March, TG Daily has learned. Quad-SLI will be launched with 7900 GTX graphics chips, which will be announced on 9 March, sources indicated.
Pittsburgh (PA) - Pittsburgh resident Andrew Warshaver has found a more modern and possibly very lucrative way of looking for a summer job. Warshaver, who is also a Carnegie Mellon computer science student, is auctioning off his programming skills on eBay. While this may sound like a joke, so far there have been four serious offers hitting $5500.
Californian researchers are now using light to control biological nanomolecules and proteins. They think it can help them to develop treatments for eye diseases, such as the loss of the light detectors in the retina which is a major cause of blindness. So they envision to put some of their nano-photoswitches in the cells of the retina, "restoring light sensitivity in people with degenerative blindness such as macular degeneration."
Agile enablement at the core of both companies" performance improvements
We all knew it was coming, which is why we"re all completely unsurprised by the fact that Sidekick users are filing lawsuits left and right over Microsoft-owned Danger losing all their data.
Santa Clara (CA) - Nvidia"s answer to ATI"s fastest X1000 graphics card comes not even a week after volume availability of the X1800 XT. The new 7800 GTX comes with increased clock speed and more memory - which is enough to reclaim the crown of the fastest desktop graphics chip.
There"s been quite a lot of toing and froing when it comes to Microsoft/Danger"s huge, server-related boo-boo. While customers are sobbing, mourning the loss of all their data, folks are asking the same question over and over, "How did this even happen?"
San Jose (CA) - Researchers from AMD and IBM apparently have reached a milestone in advancing chip production technology, creating a path to semiconductors with structures of 16 nm and smaller.
The combined shares of 40" and 42" LCD TVs will exceed that for PDP (plasma display panel) TVs in the global 40" to 49" TV market by the fourth quarter of this year, according to Hsiung Hui, executive vice president of AU Optronics (AUO).In the 40N-range TV market, LCD TV gained ten percentage points to account for 32% of the market in the second quarter while PDP TV saw a five-percentage-point drop to 60% last quarter, according to DisplaySearch.
Rockstarň€™s highly anticipated shooting and stealing game, Grand Theft Auto IV, was released today online through both scene servers and torrent sites. A group called iCON announced its release, with an nfo posted on scene news site nforce.nl. According to iCON, players who decide to source out and download the leak will have to keep in mind that the game is currently a PAL release as well as not being region free. iCON did not indicate whether or not an NTSC release was coming.
Fontana (CA) - Facing hot temperatures, high winds and an occasional dust storm, the 43 DARPA Grand Challenge teams entered the qualification round at the Fontana Speedway. The first day seemed to resemble more a destruction derby than a race. Many of the autonomous vehicles hit parked cars and hay bales, but in the end a good chunk of the teams successfully completed the course.
The United States in 2006 is expected to maintain its lead in the worldwide electronic equipment design business, with the nation"s activities in this area driving the most semiconductor purchasing of any country on earth, according research firm Isuppli. However, China"s rapid growth in electronic-design-generated semiconductor purchasing activity is continuing and the country is closing in on the United States and the other top nations, noted the research firm.
Wishing that you did not have to deal with software-based firewalls installed on your PC, which are themselves prone to external attack that can make them appear to work when really they aren"t?
Government Computer News is reporting that one of the major initiatives launched as part of intelligence reform legislation signed into law in 2004, may die out after the resignation of its project manager last week, leaving a critical vacancy for US intelligence czar John Negroponte to fill.
Chicago (IL) - Yesterday, Intel released its fastest server and workstation processors ever at a power level we haven"t seen in several years. But the "Core" architecture, which the new Xeon 5100s are based on, may not be the universal solution for the long term, as power consumption may top 100 watts once again when quad-cores arrive in early 2007, TG Daily has learned.
UK newspaper The Telegraph today reports that Microsoft is working on a music streaming service which it hopes to have ready by the end of this month. The Telegraph cites Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN who said, ň€śMusic is an important area for Microsoft. We are looking at launching a music streaming service imminently." Bale went on to say that it would be a similar service to Spotify, but that Microsoft is still examining how the business model will work.
Mountain View (CA) - Google today added another beta service to its growing portfolio of web applications. The company now offers a web-based WYSIWIG tool that allows users to create simple web pages that can be published free of charge on Google"s servers. Other than competing free hosting services, Google homepages do not include advertising.
Due to the massive amount of backlash from the press as well as customers, Time Warner Cable at the end of last week introduced essentially what is the company"s unlimited download plan, for $150 per month.
San Francisco (CA) - No, Origami has not yet been officially announced. But several sources in and around the Intel Developers" Forum here have hinted that various permutations of the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) prototype concept that have popped up here, would be "very similar" to the mysterious Origami device Microsoft will be unveiling on 9 March at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hanover, Germany.
Now your new OS will know how to listen to surround sound signals.
Leader in yard management solutions based on real-time asset visibility technology is recognized by Food Logistics magazine for the third year as Top 100 solution provider to the food industry
Toshiba may be far from giving up its battle with Sony to establish the successor of the DVD. But just in case Blu-ray may come out on top, Toshiba has an ace in its backhand: A joint-venture the company has founded with Samsung will be producing Blu-ray drives for delivery in the second quarter.
Redmond (WA) - Microsoft has pulled the emergency brake and decided that it will not pursue a purchase of Yahoo. In a letter sent to Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry, Microsoft CEO said that Yahooň€™s demands of a 70% premium of the companyň€™s closing price on January 31 were unreasonable and he made it clear that Yahooň€™s decision to strike a deal with Googleň€™s advertising solutions were the decisive blow to kill the deal altogether. We are now waiting Yahoo stockholders suing the company and Google continuing its current pace of growth.
NComputing describes best practices to social entrepreneurs at SOCAP09: growing a for-profit business while making a significant social impact
Scotts Valley (CA)
Scotts Valley (CA)
China-based BOE Optoelectronics Technology (BOE OT) and Info Vision Optronics (IVO) are eyeing the 19" widescreen panel market, with IVO already starting shipping 19" widescreen panels in September, according to sources. However, Taiwan-based panel makers expect a limited impact on the short-term supply and demand balance for the segment since the initial amount of output from China-based panel makers will not be significant.
Spansion, a joint venture between Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Fujitsu, may place orders with United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing to produce "ORNAND" flash memory, as its parent companies may not be able to allot capacity for its use, according to sources in the industry.
Seoul - Using plastic instead of glass substrates enables panel manufacturers to create bendable, flexible LCDs for mobile and consumer electronics applications. Samsung claims it has created the largest flexible display to date: The 7" prototype achieves VGA resolution.
With an improved site and online tool, the Columbus Chamber encourages new and current business in the area.
Lexus announced at the 2006 New York Auto Show that its new flagship sedan, the LS 600h L model, will be available with high-end Mark Levinson audio system that will integrate a hard drive to store audio files. A similar announcement was made last week by Infiniti, which said it will be offering a hard drive for its 2007 G35 sedan.
Park Ridge (New Jersey) - Signaling the fact that hard drive technology is nowhere near obsolescence, Sony Electronics announced this morning the release later this month to the US market, of a 5 Gb hard drive measuring 1.5 inches per side, that can fit in existing Compact Flash Type II slots.
Early birds are more like lucky birds.
Santa Clara (CA) - AMD has been pushing its Fusion idea for quite some time. The company claims the Fusion concept was one of the main reasons why they acquired ATI in the first place. The timetable for Fusion has been set, but Intel is working on a similar CPU/GPU combination and we are hearing that Intel may have its product earlier in the market than AMD, TG Daily has learned.
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EA says that the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform.
Claims that the concepts of 1" and 1.8" harddrives may be in their final days are taken out of proportion, market research firm iSuppli said. Several media reports hinting in this direction were triggered by an iSuppli analyst who said that Samsung may have slashed prices for 2 GByte and 4 GByte Flash memory chips by as much as 50 percent in order to convince Apple to dump the harddrive in the successor of the iPod mini.
Imetodo to Represent Configure One"s Products in Spain
Samsung has unveiled what"s possibly the world"s largest plasma monitor screen - a monster 255cm (102in) high density panel codenamed "Atlas".
Win some cash and video cards!
Leading Sage and Microsoft Business Partner, DMC Software has introduced a series of weekly ACT! 2010 Webinars designed to update people with the latest product news, ACT! 2010 functionality and new features.
LSI Logic next week plans to unveil what it said is the industry"s first enterprise-class SATA-II RAID controller.
College Park (MD) - Researchers found that electrons can travel substantially faster in graphene than in silicon, a standard material used in semiconductor products today. The fairly new material is believed to accelerate the electron flow by a factor of 100x and bring big advantage for applications that require rapid switching.
Although first-tier motherboard makers are still unable to ship X48-based motherboards, some of them have broken ranks to pre-announce their upcoming products along with their newest technologies.Gigabyte Technology recently announced its X48 motherboard highlighting it will adopt the company"s unique Dynamic Energy Saver (DES) technology, while Micro-Star International (MSI) also made the announcement that its X48 motherboard will adopt the same dual-channel power supply design as that in its X38 model for better power management.
Chicago (IL) - Market research firm Gartner predicts that PC manufacturers will be able to grow their business in the double digit-range in 2006, but should expect a substantial slowdown from the momentum the industry reached in 2005.
Microsoft is being targeted by a startup company going by the name ň€˜G.ho.stň€™ in an apparent claim that Microsoft is violating a company trademark. The violation in question has to do with use of phrases such as ň€śno wallsň€ť in its US$300 million Windows marketing and advertising campaign.
Taiwan panel makers expect prices to decline less sharply in 2007 than in 2006, with average prices falling 20-25% for the year, and they also expect prices to decrease in a slightly slower pace in February than in January, according to sources with first-tier panel makers. The relatively milder declines in prices this year will be the result of panel makers" decision to start cutting output toward the end of last year, the sources added.
Tell me what you see. On second thought, don"t: A computer will soon be able to do it, simply by analyzing the activity of your brain. That"s the promise of a decoding system unveiled this week in Nature by neuroscientists from the University of California at Berkeley.
Over the last two weeks, the world wide web has been buzzing about Appleň€™s latest iteration of its iPhone, the iPhone 3G S.
Hamburg (Germany) - Google announced that will integrate "hundreds" of 3D buildings of Hamburg, Germany into its application "Earth." According to a report published by Spiegel Online, the models will find their way into the software "within a few days" and make Hamburg Google"s first 3D city.
Mozilla announced today that Firefox browser fans are underwriting four 30-second videos to air on U.S. primetime TV this month. The ads were produced by Firefox fans in response to this year"s "Firefox Flicks Video" campaign, which resulted in approximately 300 homemade clips about the browser.
PNY launched a new family of Geforce 6-based graphic cards. The products are PCI Express-enabled and offer more bandwidth than AGP-based alternatives for high-resolution graphics, games, and other graphically-intensive applications.
New York (NY) - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, chief executive officer Steve Ballmer and a "Windows Vista family" launched the new operating system Windows Vista today late afternoon in New York. Microsoft claims that represents the "biggest launch in software history."
Las Vegas (NV) - Ebay announced several new features that are designed to create an improved communication among Ebay sellers and buyers. Member blogs and a Wiki application will bring more user-created content to the auction site, while Skype IM and VoIP functionality is making a first, cautious step into Ebay listings.
Images and programming code from the latest beta test version of Microsoft"s upcoming Internet Explorer 7 browser have already emerged on the Internet, apparently in leaks from developers.
Santa Clara (CA)
University security experts warned administrators on Monday that a bot program has started to spread by exploiting five patched Microsoft vulnerabilities and a six-month-old flaw in Symantec"s antivirus software.
A teenage hacker from New Zealand believed to be the ring-leader of a cyber-crime gang has managed to nab himself some work courtesy of his exploits.
With availability of the GeForce Go 7700 graphics processing unit (GPU), Nvidia has beat ATI Technologies to the punch in the 80 nm manufacturing process. The GeForce Go 7700 is the first notebook GPU manufactured using 80nm process technology at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), graphics card makers indicated, adding that ATI plans to implement 80 nm manufacturing process for all its GPUs by the third quarter of this year.
The recently released 2.6.14 Linux kernel has dozens of fixes, including eight from Linus Torvalds himself. Fixes for USB2 and NTFS were included, but the most interesting fix may be in wireless. The Intel Centrino wireless chipset is now a standard feature.
WorkforceTrack introduces mini-ERP web-based hosted solution which is easy to use and doesn"t require extensive setupintegration costs for small businesses.
MIT researchers have started putting entire gas-turbine engines on tiny silicon chips. With the help of some military funding, researchers have fashioned millimeter-sized compressors, combustion chambers and turbines and placed them on layers of silicon wafers. The new engines promise to run more than 10 times longer than batteries of the same weigh and could help lighten the load for future soldiers.
Pre-CES 2007 coverage Washington (DC) - XM, the current market share leading satellite radio service, announced today that it will delve further into in-car entertainment, offering a personal weather tracking system and an in-car video concept at next week"s CES show in Las Vegas.
Asustek Computer recently introduced its EAX1800XT TOP graphics card, which incorporates ATI"s flagship Radeon X1800XT VPU (video processing unit) to provide video capability needed for robust PC video systems. Availability is slated for the middle of December, with no suggested retail price available yet, according to the company.
No more doubts about the impact of physics processing in the graphics industry. Following Ageia"s announcement to offer a physics card last year, Nvidia and ATI have been somewhat quiet about the future of hardware-based physics processing. Now, the two firms appear to be trying to catch up quickly.
Some people still think standard-def DVD is "good enough" compared to Blu-ray Disc.
Fast action photography - the sort you see at boxing matches and football games - isn"t fast enough to a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist who is building the world"s fastest camera. Pamela Klabbers, an Associate Scientist with the university, is leading a team to build a camera system capable of recording protons colliding at nearly the speed of light.
Lexington (KY) - Lexmark today announced five new b/w laser printers for basic office needs that are faster, more reliable and more energy efficient than their predecessors, according to the manufacturer. There are also six new color printers targeting small businesses and enterprise workgroups.
Washington DC - Two new studies published in Science magazine claim that biofuels use could actually increase the amount of greenhouse gases in our planet"s atmosphere. Researchers say converting forests and grasslands to ethanol producing corn or oil palm plants could actually double the CO2 levels over the next thirty years.
Futuba Japan has announced a Heads-Up Display (HUD) for cars. It consists of a 128x64 LCD projector that displays such information as speed and itinerary (if hooked up to GPS) directly on the vehicle"s windshield. The projector has a record luminance of 40,000 nits in order to guarantee legibility even in full sunlight.
Just how clean is your computer keyboard and mouse? If you work in a hospital or have small kids who like eating junk food and rolling around in the front yard then your mouse could be covered in germs and grime. Unotron is selling a line of keyboards and mice with their "SpillSeal" technology that can be fully immersed and washed.
The EET is reporting that Intel has gotten a working DDR3 prototype chip from Infineon. Details on the device are scarce, but it is known that it"s not fully compliant with the JEDEC DDR3 spec. This announcement of a working DDR3 prototype from Infineon comes about five months after Samsung announced the world"s first DDR3 memory, which was a 512Mbit, 800 MHz part.
MedCorr 2.8, Visual Records" latest version of their Release of Information software system, includes a new Legal Scheduling module, which allows users to manage legal scheduling information, chart ordering information, appointments, invoices and payments.
Technology is moving at an ever increasing rate of development, and just a few years from now, we"ll be exponentially more informed and equipped than we were in all of human history.
With a wide variety of mobile phone models with multimedia capabilities now in the market, all vying to attract the interest of consumers, iSuppli forecasts that shipments of mobile handset displays will reach 1.2 billion units in 2006, up 17% from 1.05 billion units in 2005, according to the research firm.
The DVI interface will is headed for retirement, as HDMI and Displayport are establishing themselves as successors for the interface. Market researchers from In-Stat believe that DVI shipments will "begin a steep decline" in 2008: The technology has been included in more than 112 million devices in 2007, but will only be included in an estimated 3 million devices in 2011, according to In-Stat.
NEC Display Solutions of America recently announced the launch of its 52" LCD MultiSync (LCD5220) full high-definition wide-screen display designed for digital signage applications. The new LCD5220 supports the 1080p HD standard and the ultra-thin bezel (19 millimeters / 0.7 inches allows a more seamless picture when used in multiple-display, video-wall implementations.
Tokyo
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Washington D.C. - Just in time for next weekň€™s G8 summit in Japan, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has released a new report examining the progress of each of the G8 countries toward addressing climate change, a main focus of this yearň€™s meeting. The ranking lists energy efficiency progress made in each of the G8 nations. There are very few surprises - especially the fact that the U.S. once again trails the pack.
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Apple events always have even the most jaded computer user somewhat curious as to what the Cupertino company could be coming out with next, and todayň€™s MacBook event delivers on nearly all from the rumor mill.
Trend Micro has announced the release of PC-cillin Internet Security, designed to provide antivirus and other protection for Windows Vista, the next generation of the Windows client operating system. A Windows Vista beta version of Trend Micro"s PC-cillin will be available for download at Microsoft"s "Security at Home" website, which provides a variety of security information to help customers prepare for Windows Vista.
San Francisco (CA) - Imagine being able to power your laptop for two days on a single charge. You may not have to imagine for much longer. Fuel cell manufacturer UltraCell is demonstrating a prototype fuel cell system at the Intel Developer Forum, that it promises will replace conventional laptop batteries. The company"s XX25 prototype being designed for the military, as well as a commercial version called the UC25, promise to as much as 9 hours of power within the 20 watt envelope - about double the capacity of current laptop batteries - while weighing up to 70% less.
Memory specialist A-Data today showed us its BCD-SD card. This is the latest member of the company"s MyFlash product series and it is availaible in capacities of 128, 256, 512 Mb and 1 or 2 Gb. While the Turbo SD cards hit 150X speeds, the BCD-SD has 80X speed only. In exchange, it comes with a small LC display that shows the remaining storage capacity of the memory card. It uses the interface power to change the capacity display while plugged into a SD card reader, and it will maintain the display until it is replugged into a reader slot.
New York (NY) - You connect the Ipod to your computer to your computer, to your home stereo and to your car. Now Apple and Nike want you to take that extra little step to hook the device up to your workout wear: Nike will be offering a "Nike+Ipod Sport Kit" that connects running shoes with the MP3 player - not to playback music, but to store and display workout data.
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Chicago (IL) - Intel is counting down to the launch of its next-gen desktop CPU: Conroe will begin to ship to system builders in Q2 of this year with the official introduction to follow in late Q3. Details are already leaking out of Santa Clara - the chip will carry the sequence numbers E4000 and E6000 and arrive in six versions with clock speeds of up to 2.66 GHz, TG Daily has learned.
Mystic Management Systems" ensur Document Control Software identified as Mersana Therapeutic"s newest member of their Quality Department.
Asustek Computer yesterday unveiled its PVL-D series server motherboards, coinciding with Intel"s recent launch of its dual-core Xeon CPU that will improve the performance and response time of multi-threaded server applications.
San Francisco (CA) - CPUs are accelerating their gain of processing power and, in the near future, Intel believes that a single chip could perform a trillion instructions per second and replace dozens of servers. At the IDF, the firm gave a sneak peek of an upcoming 80-core processor for the "mega data-center."
The persistent shortage of polysilicon is now prompting solar cell makers to seek substitutes such as metallurgical-grade silicon as alternative raw material. This trend is growing obvious and industry players are aware of the potential development as this may pose structural changes to the industry.
A silicon chip that faithfully mimics the neural circuitry of a real retina could lead to better bionic eyes for those with vision loss, researchers claim.
According to Viaň€™s processor roadmap, dual-core Nano processors are planned to go into mass production starting June 2010.
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Jagged Peak named finalist in the Greater Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce 29th annual Small Business of the Year Award.
Chicago (IL) - McAfee accidentally released update files for its anti-virus software that contained incorrect information for the W95/CTX virus. Users are reporting significant damage caused by the mistake - several hundred common files - such as excel.exe - were quarantined and deleted.
Nvidia has started delivering an AGP-capable version of its native PCIe-based GeForce 6600GT graphics processing unit (GPU), according to sources at Taiwan graphics-card makers. The native PCIe GeForce 6600GT graphics chip is also designed to support AGP8x technology via a bridge chip, the sources noted.
This one is packing a badass quad-SSD in RAID 0 configuration.
Yahoo!, IBM, Intel, eHarmony and others sponsor inaugural Hadoop World October 2 in New York City
Madison (WI) - Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies discovered a new patterning technology that could lead to a new generation of hard drives that are not only easier to manufacture but also feature a storage density that cannot be achieved with traditional media and processes today.
Ridgefield Park (NJ) - Samsung announced a new flagship digital SLR camera, which will be positioned above its GX10: The GX20 increases the maximum image resolution from 10.2 to 14.6 megapixels and enables users to take an "unlimited number" of JPEG images in a continuous shooting mode.
With prices of 50" PDP (plasma display panel) TVs continuing to dip, demand is expected to rise significantly in the fourth quarter of this year, according to channel distributors. According to Displaybank, prices for 50" PDP TV are expected to decrease to below $2490 by the end of the year.
Seiko Epson on May 10 announced that it has begun volume production of high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) liquid crystal panels for its 3LCD data front projectors. Featuring D5 technology, the 0.8" panels produces XGA (1024x768) resolution.
With major handset vendor Motorola aggressively adopting MicroSD cards for its handsets, memory card makers see potential in the market segment. However, there are concerns about the production requirements for higher density cards, as one of the present NAND flash chip production strategies, of stacking single level cells to achieve higher densities, still faces production barriers.
Vancouver (WA) - The man who hacked a notebook computer during the ConSecWest conference in Washington listed the item for sale on Ebay, saying the exploit of the operating system "is most likely still present."
Altera and Genesys Logic on May 3 announced the availability of their x4 PCI-SIG-compliant solution using Altera"s Stratix II FPGAs and PCI Express x4 MegaCore intellectual property (IP) core and Genesys Logic"s GL9714 PCI Express x4 physical layer (PHY) chip. The solution helps designers accelerate their development of PCI Express-based systems and provides them with the industry"s only PCI-SIG-compliant solution with a seamless migration path from FPGAs to structured ASIC devices.
Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) will start volume shipments of its Intel P4 PCIe-enabled core-logic chipsets, the SiS649 and SiS656, in the second half of December, according to the company.
Haifa (Israel) - In his 25 years with Intel, Dadi (David) Perlmutter has been responsible for developing some of his company"s most innovative technologies. He worked with math co-processors in the pre-486 era, the first-generation Pentium, and the MMX technology which launched the era of the multimedia PC. In the late "90s, his team developed Timna, an integrated, all-purpose CPU concept which the company later cancelled during the shift toward NetBurst architecture. In recent years, he has led the development of the Centrino platform and the Pentium M, and is presently in charge of the future Merom micro-architecture platform.
Miami (FL) - Alienware said it "will" launch Intel"s second quad-core desktop processor, the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600, on its Area-51 7500 desktop system. At the time of this writing, the company has not made this option available on its website; a spokesperson was not available for comment or further information when this new processor may become available.
Apple has finally released patches for bugs in Leopardň€™s iCal application seven days after Core Security Technologies published the vulnerabilities.
Round Rock (TX)
Nvidia is releasing a new version of its NVPerfKit application that promises to find rendering bugs and increase graphical performance. NVPerfKit version 2.1 is a suite of tools designed for analyzing and debugging OpenGL and Direct3D programs on both Linux and Windows. Nvidia claims the kits can increase average performance by as much as 35%.
Intel is currently seeking PBGA (plastic ball-grid array) substrate suppliers in Taiwan through its domestic IC packaging and testing contract makers, as the chip giant"s major IC substrate suppliers in Japan are shifting more capacity to flip-chip (FC) substrate production, sources at Taiwan IC packaging firms indicated.
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A faulty update to Symantec"s Norton security software began booting thousands of users off their AOL internet connections last week, Symantec has admitted.
Japan-based Elpida Memory will increase its DRAM capacity to approximately 90,000 12" wafers per month, perhaps by the fourth quarter of 2007. Elpida will also boost its 90nm DDR2 production proportion to over 50 percent next quarter, according to Elpida Hong Kong president Toshiharu Namimatsu at a recent product launch held in Hong Kong.
Intel has confirmed that it has been mass-producing 65 nm Pentium D processors for some time now in its D1D fab in Hillsboro, Oregon. What we don"t know officially is when these new Pentium 900 processors, code-named "Presler," will be appearing on store shelves.
Munich
Planning to build a brand spanking new Intel Core i7- based gaming system with that fancy new Intel X58 motherboard? Just make sure you toss 6GB of memory into the mix for the best possible experience, according to Corsairň€™s recent research.
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) is expected to start volume shipments of its new-generation of microdrives, codenamed Mikey, in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Morse Chen, general manager for Hitachi GST Taiwan and Shanghai.
Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) and VIA Technologies are set to begin volume shipments of integrated chipsets that support the upcoming Microsoft Windows Vista operating system (OS), according to the two chipset makers. The Vista OS requires support for DirectX 9.0, which earlier integrated chipset versions from the two Taiwan-based chipset makers did not provide.
Boston (MA) - In perhaps the clearest indication at TechEd 2006 that everything old is new again, yesterday, Microsoft demonstrated a new set of APIs that will be compatible with the company"s Windows Live Messenger program, that will enable automated services to communicate to users using natural language. They"ll conduct conversations with people over IM chats, and may even become friends with their users.
Rome (Italy) - Italy has banned the use of cell phones in schools across the country, making it reportedly the first European nation to implement such a statewide ban.
The number of households with HDTV services, which are homes with an HDTV set that can receive HDTV signals and watch HDTV programs, are projected to grow 35% from 15 million units in mid-2006 to 20.3 million at the end of 2006, according to research firm In-Stat. Consumer demand for viewing World Cup in high defintion contents has served as a catalyst for the start of HDTV services in several European countries, says Mike Paxton, an In-Stat analyst.
Las Vegas (NV) - 1080p is really what you should be looking for in a new high-definition HDTV, but the next generation is just around the corner: Westinghouse showcases a 2160p - commonly referred to as a Quad HDTV. If you think this TV is expensive, you are absolutely right.
Santa Clara (CA) - Innovative Silicon, which made waves earlier this year by announcing a license agreement with AMD, today said that the second generation of its Z-RAM technology is available. The memory could be used as foundation for much denser L2 cache integrations in microprocessors.
Oversupply of large size TFT LCD panels will likely surpass 10% in 2006 amid aggressive capacity ramps from Korean and Taiwanese LCD panel makers, according to a DisplayBank press release.
Nvidia is expected to launch its 90nm GeForce 7900 graphics processor unit (GPU), in GT and GTX versions, on March 9, according to sources at Taiwan graphics-card makers.
Chicago (IL)
Taipei (Taiwan) - Cyberlink announced a new version of its PowerDVD video playback software. The big news about the "Ultra" version is that it can play movies on HD DVDs as well as Blu-ray discs; but the fine print also reveals that Cyberlink has developed a driver for Microsoft"s Xbox 360 HD DVD drive: So far, the external USB device could only be used as a regular DVD drive on a PC.
FarStone Technology has released a new version of its popular CD-DVD emulation software, VirtualDrive and VirtualDrive Pro Version 12 for Windows 7.
ATI Technologies and Nvidia will focus on graphics chips manufactured on a 90nm process technology rather than migrating their production to 80nm this year, due to yield and technology issues for wafer manufacturing, according to first-tier graphics card makers. Although ATI initially planned to launch graphics chips (RV570, RV560, RV535 and RV505) that adopt an 80nm manufacturing process in the third quarter of this year, the makers expect ATI to first roll out 90nm versions of those chips, as the company has been able to improve its yields on 90nm technology production.
Elpida Memory announced today that it is ready to launch a 16GB Fully Buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) that is composed by 2Gb of DDR2 components. Sample shipments of the new B-DIMM will begin later this month.
The London Times Online this morning is carrying an op-ed piece written by Gervase Markham, a member of the Mozilla Foundation, who writes about a complaint received from a local member of the Trading Standards office in the UK. The complaint alleges that Mozilla"s efforts to enable others to sell copies of Firefox and keep the profits, hampers the interests of anti-piracy.
Oracle plans to release a free version of its database in an attempt to compete more effectively at the low end of the market.
Australian words like g"day, Sheila and bogan will be added to the Microsoft Office 2007 dictionary. More than 24,000 Australians voted for the top 20 words with g"day, short for good day, leading the pack. Office currently misrecognizes the words, thinking that they are misspellings and tries to correct them.
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