All About TECHNOLOGY

Samsung releases an EcoGreen 1.5 TB HDD, uses 45% less power

2009-03-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

Samsung has developed a 1.5 TB three platter hard disk drive (500 GB per platter) which consumes 40% less power at idle, and 45% less power when reading/writing than other comparable drives. Dubbed F2EG EcoGreen, the drive is comparably priced to high-power consuming drives.

Samsung's "EcoGreen" name employs what they call an Eco-Triangle methodology for the drive's construction, which is "low-power, low-heat and low-noise operation." The drive contains 500 GB platters which, compared to other drives, allows for more data on less surface area.

Said Andy Higginbotham, Samsung's director of HDD sales, "Lower platter count means less power to start the motor, less power to continuously spin the motor and a lighter head-stack which takes less power to seek. With fewer heads and disks, the F2EG hard drive has a lower probability of head-disk failures, enabling customers to build more reliable systems."

The F2EG drive contains a 16 MB or 32 MB buffer, 3.0 Gigabits per second interface and comes in 500 GB, 1 TB or 1.5 TB versions. The 1.5 TB model sells for $149.

Sony X1000 OLED Walkman to Hit UK Next Month for ~$300

2009-02-25T22:02:00.000-08:00

Sony's slick-looking X1000 Walkman line popped up for preorder on Amazon UK with a release window of 2-5 weeks. That means we should be seeing the touchscreen, OLED player before the end of March.

The 16-gigabyte NWZ-X1050B will cost £214 (~$300) and 32-gigabyte NWZ-X1060B will cost £283 (~$400). Looking forward to the X1000 making a stateside appearance sometime soon.

Supposed photo of new Apple Mac mini leaked

2009-02-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

Has the right ports, but no new design

It's that time again, another Apple rumour and another semi-blurry picture of what is meant to be a new piece of hardware that will be out "soon". The rumour about a new Mac mini has been going on for months now with some pictures turning up online just ahead of Mac World back in January, but this time around, the design doesn't seem to have changed.

What have changed is the ports on the back, as the pictured Mac mini in this case has had a fairly radical upgrade (in Apple terms at least). It comes with five USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, a mini DVI and more interestingly a mini DisplayPort, as well as an Ethernet port and two audio jacks.

There was of course some spec's listed as well and in this case we're talking about a mobile Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of L2 cache and a clock speed of 2GHz. There's also meant to be 2GB of DDR3 1,066MHz memory as standard, which we highly doubt, as the cost of DDR3 memory is still very high and Apple wouldn't stick more than 1GB in the system because of this if its past records are anything to go by. The "Super Drive" is meant to have a SATA interface rather than IDE as with the current Mac mini.

Fact or fiction? You can make your own mind up by taking a look at the picture here

Apple buys more flash memory

2009-02-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

Another iPhone coming

The dark satanic rumour mill has been churning out a yarn which suggests that Apple might be planning to release another iPhone.

The rumour comes on the back of news that Apple has cleaned out Samsung's supply of flash memory in recent weeks. AppleInsider claims that the outfit has also asked Toshiba and Hynix to step up with more flash memory. This means, the rumour says, that Apple is planning to release a new iPhone.

It makes sense as Apple's bottom line suffers that it hopes that the same people who bought the iPhone 3G might be dumb enough to want a replacement.

In January, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller hinted that Apple has settled on a midyear refresh cycle for iPhones, after launching the original iPhone in late June and the iPhone 3G in July.

Apple kills 20-inch Cinema Display

2009-02-19T20:38:00.000-08:00

It's official. As of today, the 20-inch Cinema Display is no more, reducing Apple's display lineup to the 30-inch model (that works with all Macs) and the recently introduced 24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display featuring a DisplayPort interconnect and works only with unibody MacBooks. Whether the product's removal is the sign of hardware refresh that will transition 20-inch models to DisplayPort or, as some think, indication of a new 28-inch Cinema Display that would nicely complement previous rumors of the new top-of-the-line 28" iMac model, remains to be seen. All we know is that Apple told its partners that the 20-inch model has reached end-of-life status, effective immediately -- adding that all backlog will be canceled.

Apple quietly removed the 20-inch Cinema Display from its online store today. In addition, the company has informed resellers that the product has reached "end-of-life" status, warning that "all backlog will be cancelled and there is no automatic order conversion." Apple allegedly stopped manufacturing the display at the end of last year and was selling just channel inventory. Sources have immediately deciphered the move as a sign of hardware refresh with an updated product of the same design, meaning the LED-backlit display and DisplayPort technology found in the 24-inch Cinema Display overhauled last October.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during the unibody MacBook introduction (last September) that DisplayPort will find its way into every computer Apple makes. "We're building it into everything we make," he said. And Apple fans surely welcome the first signs of action from Cupertino, following an unusual period of silence that brought no refreshes to the company's hardware lineup since the 24-inch Cinema Display last October. The latter model replaced the previously sold 23-inch Cinema Display, having ditched the DVI interconnect in favor of DisplayPort.

Is Apple killing the 20-inch Cinema Display entirely?

Some Apple watchers are not convinced the removal of the 20" model means there is hardware refresh around the corner. Instead, they suspect Apple might have killed the 20" display in order to bring an alleged 28" display into the view. The move would fall nicely in line with previous rumors of a new top-of-the-line 28" iMac model that is also allegedly in the works.

The oversized iMac model would, according to these voices, sport the fastest processor and graphics architecture, catering to creative professionals who find Mac Pro too pricey but require more performance and screen real estate than the current top-of-the-line 24" iMac brings to the table. Readers should note that the 28" iMac rumor was based on unnamed sources, so it quickly fell in oblivion and has not been corroborated by reliable sources to lend it some credence.

DisplayPort confusion

With the removal of 20-inch model, Apple's current Cinema Display lineup consists of the 30-inch model (introduced in June 2004) and the24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display with DisplayPort, meaning it can only be used with the latest unibody MacBooks equipped with the latest VESA-backed interconnect standard. Given Jobs' comments, the company will eventually update the largest 30" model to DisplayPort technology as well.

Apple's miniaturized DisplayPort variant, dubbed Mini DisplayPort and used in unibody MacBooks, has been officially approved and will become a part of the upcoming industry-backed DisplayPort 1.2 specification. Users should pay attention to compatibility issuesbetween non-DisplayPort-compatible Mac computers and DisplayPort-compatible devices like the 24" LED-backlit Cinema Display. The company is expected to refresh its iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro line with DisplayPort later this year, as well as its Apple TV set-top box.

By bringing DisplayPort technology to both its computer and display products Apple will eventually make life easier for new users, while owners of older displays or computers will have to resort to additional converter boxes to make their equipment work with the new standard. However, it is likely Apple will make this a relatively easy transition as well.

TRANSITION TO THE DISPLAY PORT
Apple began transitioning to DisplayPort interconnects with the new unibody MacBooks unveiled last October. The company soon replaced 23-inch Cinema Display with the new 24-inch LED-backlit model and its DisplayPort interconnect, meaning it can only be used with unibody MacBooks.

MINI DISPLAYPORT NOW PART OF DISPLAY PORT 1.2 STANDARD
Mini DisplayPort, Apple's own miniaturized variant of DisplayPort, can drive 30-inch Cinema Display via "Mini DisplayPort to dual-DVI" converter box and is just one tenth in size compared to the regular DVI interconnect. Mini DisplayPort will become part of the upcoming industry-backed DisplayPort 1.2 specification.

Sony Ericsson shows of media tastic phone

2009-02-16T10:08:00.000-08:00

Codename Idou, with 12.1Megapixel camera

Despite everyone expecting Samsung to be the first company to announce a 12.1Megapixel camera phone, it turned out that Sony Ericsson managed to beat them to it with the introduction of a handset that is currently going under the code name of Idou.

This handset is quite different from what we've seen from Sony Ericsson in the past and it focuses on the multimedia features more than anything else and as such, it has a 16:9 3.5in touch screen with a somewhat disappointing 640x320 resolution, as this isn't as good as some other recently announced media savvy handsets. It looks like Sony Ericsson has also borrowed the UI, at least in part, from the PS3, although it doesn't show on the pictures below.

This is also the first Sony Ericsson handset based on the Symbian Foundation platform to be officially revealed. Other features include built in WiFi, GPS, a forward facing camera for video calls, a Xenon flash and an M2 memory card slot. As for the rest, we'll just have to wait and see and it's a long wait, as Sony Ericsson has only given a very vague 2H 2009 launch date. If Samsung hurries up, they might be the first to market with a 12.1Megapxiel camera phone at this rate.

Upgrade of 5G iPod to 240GB now possible

2009-02-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

Still working on additional iPod models

Still running out of storage on your 5th generation iPod? The modders at Rapid Repair have just the ticket for you, with the announcement that they have been successful at upgrading the 5G iPod to a whopping 240GB of storage.

According to Rapid Repair CEO Ben Levy, “The mod is actually very simple on the 5th generation iPod.” The upgrade uses the Toshiba MK2431 hard drive to expand 5G iPod to 240GB.

Right now the Toshiba hard drive is only compatible with the 5G iPod, but the company is working hard to mod the iPod Video, iPod Classic, and the second generation Zune to be able to add these to the list of units that are compatible with the 240GB upgrade. The only problem may be with the almost $250 price of the MK2431GAH hard drive required for the upgrade.

You can learn more here

Sony denies rumors of Intel Larrabee in PlayStation 4

2009-02-06T06:27:00.000-08:00

Best work of fiction since The Lord of the Rings

This week, the Inquirer published an exclusive report based on conversations with unnamed Sony representatives at CES, claiming that Nvidia would be entirely out of the picture in all upcoming next generation consoles. Overall, claims were made stating that Intel's forthcoming Larrabee would be the general purpose GPU to power Sony's PlayStation 4 in the next gen console war.

"The nice Sony engineering lady at CES told us that Intel essentially bought the win, a theoretically good architecture, no imminent threats of going bust, and not being hated by Sony all contributed too. With a couple of deliverables satisfied, the PS4 GPU belongs to Intel." The report continued: "Yeah, Intel won the PS4 GPU, no shock considering how much they needed a console win to get people coding for Larrabee."

Fortunately, Sony Computer Entertainment has moved quickly to deny this latest rumor that Intel will be producing the GPU for the PlayStation 4. To further correct the given claims, TechRadar spoke with a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe representative who clearly stated, "it's nonsense, and is quite possibly the best work of fiction I've read, since Lord of the Rings."

On another note, the report even stated that the next gen consoles "will likely have a CPU which we know nothing about"and would "seem to be leaning towards x86" all while claiming this to be solid information.

All in all, we'll let the rumor mill have a swing at this one. The only speculation we are going to give at this point is the idea that Sony might very well choose to implement the OpenGL 3.0 specification in its next gen console for the new texture compression algorithms and full frame buffer object functionality, not to mention 32-bit floating-point textures. We hope some kind of general purpose GPU functionality will also be included, although we are left waiting in anticipation with the rest of the world for much more needed concrete evidence.

Exploding cellphone kills man

2009-02-04T08:42:00.000-08:00

A Chinese man has died after his cellphone exploded, severing a major artery in his neck.

The man, thought to be a shop assistant in his twenties at a computer shop in Guangzhou, China, died after he put a new battery in his phone, the UK's Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.

It was believed that he may have just finished charging the battery and had put the phone in his breast pocket when it exploded.

According to the local Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News, the accident happened on January 30 at 19:30.

An employee at the shop told Chinese media that she heard a loud bang and saw her colleague lying on the floor of the shop in a pool of blood. The employee said the victim had recently changed the battery in his cellphone.

Chinese authorities have yet to determine the make and model of the phone and its battery.

Local reports said that this was the ninth recorded cellphone explosion in China since 2002.

In the most high profile recent incident, in June 2007, a 22-year-old welder, Xiao Jinpeng, died from chest wounds when his cellphone exploded while he was at work at an iron mill in Gansu province.

A local government inquiry found that the mobile phone battery had exploded due to the heat of the iron mill.

Lithium batteries are widely used in mobile phones - but if they are overcharged or exposed to heat, the inflammable liquid inside can explode, the Daily Mail reports.

Motorola and Nokia, two of the world's biggest mobile phone makers, denied links to the distributors of problem batteries in China, suggesting they were counterfeit.

After the latest incident, the Shin Min Daily News published advice for consumers on how to avoid mobile phone explosions. The tips included:

- Always use original batteries. Be sure that batteries by the manufacturer are meant for your mobile phone.

- Never modify your phone

- Do not expose your cellphone to high temperatures, and avoid exposing it to direct sunlight

- Avoid long phone conversations

- Do not make or answer calls when the phone is charging

- Try to keep your phone in a bag instead of in a pocket

- Do not use damaged batteries

IBM to build massive 20 Petaflop supercomputer for NNSA

2009-02-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

What happens in the supercomputer world is a seemingly distant topic for most of us, yet it impacts all of us in many ways through new opportunities for scientists and hopefully accelerated research results. Recent advances in supercomputing are simply breathtaking, and the computing power they'll soon possess is awe-inspiring.

The most recent list of the Top 500 supercomputers, published in November 2008, included the first ever Petaflop systems - capable of performing more than 1 quadrillion floating point operations per second. Now we hear that the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has ordered a supercomputer that will be able to deliver 20 times that performance by 2012.

The new supercomputer, called Sequoia, will be installed at the site of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in stages necessary to reach its maximum processing power in three years. The first portion of it, called Dawn, is currently being installed and is expected to deliver about 500 TFlops during Q1 2009. While Dawn is based on currently available processors, Sequoia will be built on future IBM BlueGene technology.

When completed, the supercomputer will have 1.6 Petabytes of memory, 96 racks, 98,304 compute nodes, and 1.6 million cores. IBM promises Sequoia will be 160 times more power efficient than ASC Purple and 17 times more so than BlueGene/L - both previously installed supercomputers at LLNL.

BlueGene/L is currently listed as the world’s fourth fastest supercomputer with a maximum performance of 596 TFlops. The system was upgraded in 2007 and 2008 to 106,496 PowerPC 440 (700 MHz) processors with 212,992 cores.

IBM said its performance is comparable to the world’s population (6.7 billion people) working together on a calculation 24 hours per day and 365 days a year using a hand calculator: However, it would take all of us 320 years to achieve what Sequoia can do in just one hour.

In theory the projected 20 PFlops will offer a 50x improvement in predicting earthquakes and a 40x improvement in predicting weather - allowing forecasters to predict local weather events that affect areas 100 meters to one kilometer in size, which is a significant improvement over their current ten-kilometer ability.

As far as earthquakes are concerned, the possibilities such a new system offers are fascinating: We recently ran a story on the work being done by the Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAE) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the impact such research has on people living in areas threatened by earthquakes - down to even predicting which houses may be destroyed and which may not.

Imagine the possibilities of continued, affordable supercomputer growth. What a fascinating time we live in.

Samsung hints to DDR4 with first validated 40 nm DRAM

2009-02-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

Samsung today announced that it has developed and validated its first 40 nm DRAM chip, which are expected to consume 30% less power than current 50nm modules, and is an important step toward DDR4 development.

The 40 nm 1 Gb memory component, which will be used in a 1 GB 800 Mb/s DDR2 module for notebooks (SODIMM), has been validated for Intel's GM45 chipset platform, Samsung said. The company is also developing a 2 Gb version, which should be ready for mass-production by the end of the year.

Compared to the current 50 nm memory, Samsung believes that it will be able to accelerate the time-to-market of new memory devices by 50% and increase productivity by 60%. The 40 nm memory modules are expected to consume 30% less power than current devices.

Perhaps most interesting, Samsung noted that the 40 nm node marks a "a significant step" toward the development of "ultra-high performance DRAM technologies," such as DDR4. The company did not provide further details, however, but we have heard from industry sources that DDR4 should not be expected to surface before 2012.

Core i7 isn't selling well

2009-02-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

Platform too expensive?

Core i7 is definitely the fastest CPU on the block, but when it comes to sales, it is not doing particularly well. Despite the fact that the cheaper Core i7 920 sells for a reasonable €260 for a 2.66GHz quad-core, motherboard and memory prices are the reason why customers shy away from this platform.

Core 2 Quad is still performing quite well, and the motherboards are cheaper, not to mention the memory and most of the customers even today tend to go for a Core 2 Quad rather than a Core i7.

This surely has something to do with the economy, as nowadays the cheapest X58 motherboard sells for a reasonable €177 or more, but the guys who are selling these CPUs confirmed several times that Core i7 is not a top seller.

Rumor: Samsung Announcing First 12MP Cameraphone This Month

2009-02-02T08:28:00.001-08:00

Samsung is reportedly planning to announce the first 12MP cameraphone at the Mobile World Conference in about two weeks, lobbing another salvo of megapixels in the moment's most pointless technology race.

Details are slim about the handset, which is telling—if the most notable and leakworthy feature of this phone is a noisy, pumped-spec camera then we probably aren't going to be treated to anything revolutionary. It'd be reasonable to expect something like the Innov8, Samsung's 8MP cameraphone (pictured above, slightly 'shopped by Unwired) but a touchscreen handset like theabout-to-drop 8MP Memoir isn't out of the question either.

Either way, the point remains that the cameraphone megapixel battle is a ridiculous one, driven by marketers instead of engineers—until there's a truly great 3.2 megapixel cameraphone, milking more pixels out of these phones' already strained sensors shouldn't be a priority.

Google Explains the Site-Wide Mistake: "Human Error"

2009-02-01T01:02:00.001-08:00

Earlier this morning, every single one of Google's search results came with a warning that the site "may harm your computer," including their own properties like Gmail and Google Maps. They've since explained what happened:

Google works with the non-profit StopBadware.org to create a list of potentially dangerous sites, which is updated periodically. One such update happened this morning, but somebody typed in "/" by mistake. That simple keystroke expands to every single URL, which is why Google was universally borked. Google engineers fixed the problem in about half an hour, and it's back to normal now.

Please don't play with our heads again, Google. We trust you. If you tell us the entire internet might infect our computers, we'll probably believe you.

Flash on iPhone IS Coming, Up To Adobe To Clear Tech Hurdles

2009-02-01T01:01:00.001-08:00

Bloomberg's interview with Adobe's Shantanu Narayen reveals that Adobe is developing Flash for the iPhone, it's been in development since June 2008, and is a customized solution just for the iPhone.

Apple has said repeatedly that regular desktop Flash is too heavy (on CPU, and thus battery life) for the iPhone, whereas Flash Lite is too lousy. Jobs has coerced Adobe to create a custom solution. From Narayan's words of "the ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver," the engineering effort lies more in Adobe's engineering team than in Apple's.

Adobe actually said, back in September '08, that there would be a version released "in a very short time" if Apple approved it. Obviously either Apple rejected it, or Adobe themselves decided it wasn't quite resource-friendly enough to launch.

XFX's ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 pictured

2009-02-01T00:56:00.001-08:00

Still with a reference cooler
Thanks to the Alternate.de, we finally have a picture of XFX's HD 4870 X2 card. This card wasn't listed at XFX's web site, even if it was listed at some local e-tail/retail shops.
The card has a same reference cooler, which isn't that strange as the non-reference cards are very rare. As far as we know, Gainward, Palit and Sapphire with its Atomic are the only partners with non-reference cooled X2 cards. The sticker on XFX's HD 4870 X2 looks good and the card is currently listed but unfortunately not yet available. According to the details over at Alternate.de, the card works at reference 750MHz for both GPUs, and has 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 3,600MHz.
You can find the card listed here and here is the picture of XFX's HD 4870 X2 card. We hope that XFX can ship these cards soon to as many retail/e-tail shops, as at current listed price it is just way to expensive.

DSTL1 Android Smartphone Is Battlestar Galactica's iPhone

2009-01-27T10:57:00.001-08:00

This is the Android-based, 3-inch Sharp touchscreen, General Mobile DSTL1. And it is everything the T-Mobile isn't: A stunning design and features combination that may convince regular consumers to choose the Android platform over iPhone.

Seriously, while the T-Mobile G1 leaves me completely in a blah state of mind, DSTL1 actually makes me horny in a "I wish this thing vibrates really hard" kind of way.

Look at it. It's like the Battlestar Galactica designers took the iPhone design and passed it through their Colony-Design-a-thon, adding angled corners to it but keeping the same black glass, chrome accents, black plastic, circular home button, ear speaker grill, and volume controls. The result is a design which looks extremely familiar to the public, yet adds enough changes to appeal to people who want something cool looking, but different. And with better specs too:

Technology
Double SIM, Linux 2.6 Kernel
Platform
Marvell PXA 310 (624MHz)+NXP 5209
Bands
900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
Screen
TFT/ WQVGA/ 260K Colors/ 3.0" Sharp Brand Touchscreen Display/ 240 x 400 pixels
Wi-fi
802.11 b/g
GPRS
Yes
EDGE
Yes
WAP
Yes, HTTP/WAP2.0 support
MMS
Yes
E-mail
Yes
Bluetooth
Yes / BT 2.0 + EDR, SPP, A2DP, AVRCP, OPP, HFP
FM Radio
Yes
TV
Java
Yes ( MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1 )
MP3/MPEG4
Yes/Yes
Face to Face videoconferencing
Yes

Weight
135gr
Dimensions
112 x 54 x 16 mm
Memory
4GB internal memory, 256MB flash + 128MB SDRAM ,"Up to 8GB T-flash Card Support"
Camera
5MP Auto Focus with Flash Sharp Brand Camera
Voice Recorder
Yes

Talk Time
240 minutes
Standby Time
150 hours
Battery
1200 mAh
Accessories
Extra Battery, USB Cable, Earphone, AC Charge Adaptor

Others
Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF document view MP3/ WAV/ MIDI/ AMR support 3GP, MPEG4, AVI (DIVX),QVGA recording 30fps, decoding 30 fps JPG/GIF/BMP/PNG Business card reader support Anti theft support Video chat support Impressive. Apparently the DSTL1 it will be at Barcelona's 3GSM in February and I will be there to see if all these features are the real thing and how much this beast will cost. But on paper and renderings, it may be the first phone that would make me drop my iPhone. The only "but" for me: It's 0.63 inches thick (16mm). Too much of a brick after being used to the ultra-thin iPhone.

Is The Xbox 360 in Real Trouble?

2009-01-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

While Sony’s revenues increased this year, Microsoft’s share ended up decreasing in value likely due to decreased Xbox 360 hardware prices. This comes on the heels of Microsoft boasting and toasting themselves all over the gaming industry for their successful increase in unit sales of the 360 due to the price drop of the Arcade edition for $199.

While the 360 did gain ground on its rival Sony’s PS3. This is all attributed to the price drop. On the surface it seems like a good move, but underneath lies the truth that the current trend for Microsoft’s unit sales is; units sales up, profits down. Leaving it up to software sales for continued economic prosperity. This is one area where Microsoft is no slouch. Gears of War 2 will easily go on to sell 5 million copies. Two new Halo games and continues high sales of third party titles almost assure success in 2009. The real question for Microsoft this year is not 09 itself, but rather can they sustain beyond.

Competition has gotten very steep this year as Sony ups the ante with Killzone 2. From all impressions and reviews given so far, it seems as though Sony finally has an absolute powerhouse of a game on its hand. "Halo Killer" is a common statement heard in reviews and impressions. Also Sony has probably the biggest game of the year sitting in the training room brewing to what should be perfection. That’s right, God of War 3.

This year is beginning to shape up to be a very heavy hitting year in the HD console war. The stakes are higher than ever. Microsoft’s must hold of the huge onslaught of PS3 exclusive titles with its own triple A titles all while getting the next few years ready at the same time. It should be one hell of a ride.

WD finally launches 2TB drive

2009-01-27T10:46:00.001-08:00

WD's much talked about 2TB hard drive has gone on sale in Australia, and we're expecting it to pop up in Europe and the States within days, if not hours. We were expecting it last week, but it seems WD wasn't in much of a hurry to launch it.

The cheapest listings currently stand at just under AU$400, while the WD's 1TB drive sells for under AU$180. Australians have the misfortune of paying more for their hardware than the rest of the world, and we expect prices in Europe to be slightly lower, although WD's official MSRP is €299. The company will also release a 1.5TB version of the drive, and one of the first uses of the new drives will be in WD's My Book series of external hard drives.

Seagate has recently announced its 12th generation Barracuda series, also featuring 500GB platters, so it might launch its own 2TB drive soon, this time around hopefully without messed up firmware.

Apple gets multitouch patent

2009-01-27T10:45:00.001-08:00

Everything you touch belongs to Apple

The glorious Apple religion has scored a key patent which now means that anyone who comes up with touch screen technology might have to pay Jobs' Mob shedloads of cash.

World of Apple spotted the patent, which was awarded to Steve Jobs, iPhone software chief Scott Forstall, and Wayne Westerman, one of the founders of a company called Fingerworks that Apple acquired in 2005.

The patent is extremely long, and covers many of the methods used by the iPhone to display data, such as pinch-to-zoom Web browsing and swipe-to-scroll. Yesterday COO Tim Cook's warned Palm that it would be getting nasty if iPhone competitors nicked its IP it would use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal.

Palm said that if Apple wanted to sue them they should “bring it on”.

Will the Google GDrive kill off the PC?

2009-01-26T09:09:00.001-08:00

Cloud computing means stormy weather for Microsoft

That large beige box under your desk could be consigned to history if, as predicted, the Google GDrive hits the market.

It's said to be the next step in the company's 'cloud computing' strategy, with direct access to all of Google's office-based software, not to mention Gmail, Picasa photo storage, Google Maps, media files and of course, good old web searching. Ok, you'll still need a monitor, keyboard and other desktop accessories, but if this thing comes cheap, it'll fly out - and rip a large hole out of Microsoft's projected profits. After all, with no desktops, where does Microsoft stick its software?

Are there any downsides? Well, of course there are. You will have to trust all your personal data and files with a third party. If you've nothing to hide (or need to conceal), that's fair enough. But if the thought of a third party accessing your life gets you in a sweat, maybe the GDrive isn't for you.

And of course, we don't just use desktops for web browsing - if you use it for gaming or graphics, the Google box is unlikely to tick the boxes. Not much use if you rely on a laptop either.

But the pros certainly outweigh the cons. Google is refusing to confirm that the GDrive is imminent, but we suspect it is. Watch this space.

PSP to Come in New, Festive "Carnival Colors"

2009-01-26T09:06:00.001-08:00

OK, when we werebrainstorming new functionality for the PSP, who out there requested four new "carnival colors" instead of a second analog stick?

Beginning March 5th, Japan will have access to the PSP in Radiant Red, Vibrant Blue, Bright Yellow and Spirited Green. They'll come alone for about 19800 yen (the normal PSP price) or with a matching case/wrist strap and 4GB Memory Stick for 24800 yen (that's about $280 when converted).

I don't know about you, but these new PSP colors make me crave elephants, clowns and bearded women...and definitely not in that order, if you know what I'm saying.

3D Porn is Coming: Three Guesses as to What Will be Sticking Straight Off the Screen

2009-01-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Nobody asked for it, but it's coming anyways: 3D porn. Yes, Hong Kong filmmakers are hard at work on the first 3D adult film, shooting with a budget of $4 million.

The movie, which will be in Chinese, is called "3D Sex and Zen" and begins shooting in April.

Just imagine that you'll be watching it as if you were sitting beside the bed. There will be many close-ups. It will look as if the actresses are only a few centimetres from the audience.

And if lots of close-ups didn't sell you, get this: only 25% to 30% of the movie will be sex scenes. This sounds like a terrible porn. But hey, 3D guys! You'll get to watch it with headache-inducing glasses! The future!

GT300 is Nvidia's DirectX 11

2009-01-26T09:00:00.001-08:00

Nvidia is working on what looks to be its first DirectX 11 card and as it was the case before, Nvidia will start with DirectX 11 in the ultra high-end and it will pass it on to slower cards at a later date. The codename that we've heard is a quite logical one, GT300, and this card will help Nvidia to fight and eventually take the performance crown in ultra high-end market.

We do know that ATI should have its high end DirectX 11 at a similar date, and in the meantime both companies will focus more on cheaper cards in 2009, as the year of the Ox will probably be a good year for selling cheaper and more affordable stuff. All of the cards to launch in next three quarters in mainstream and entry-level will stick with DirectX 10 or 10.1, depending who are you talking about.

Many of you know that high-end helps selling entry level and mainstream, and it is rather important who wins this round, but it is still way too early to tell.

All electric car Aptera 2e in production

2009-01-26T08:57:00.000-08:00

California will soon be home to a production version of the Aptera 2e (see TG Daily'sprevious coverage with pictures). The futuristic, all-electric, highly aerodynamic car will go on sale only in California for starting at $25,000, will have a range about 100 miles on electric alone (down from previous 125 mile estimate). Like Chevy's Volt, a 2010 model (revised from previous 2009 estimate) small gasoline engine will be available to recharge the batteries, extending that range.

The Aptera 2e will be the official name of what was previously known during development as Aptera Typ-1. Aptera 2e is a three-wheeled, highly aerodynamic two-seater design. The doors open up and the roof includes a solar panel for powering the ventilation system. Some of the specs have changed from this original Typ-1 design (see original specs as published in December, 2007).

Note: See link above for additional images.

It has a 0-60 mph time of just under 10 seconds, a top speed of 90 mph and its energy consumption rate is equivalent to more than 200 mpg (compared to previous nearly 300 mpg estimate) using the standard EPA driving cycle. The company has received 4,000 $500 non-refundable deposit orders so far (up from 400 in December, 2007).

Nintendo DSi coming to U.S. in April

2009-01-15T22:51:00.001-08:00

IGN has started a rumor that the successor to Nintendo's DS Lite, The DSi, will hit U.S. store shelves in April for $179.99. The devices have already sold more than one million units in Japan for the equivalent of $211.

There are not many changes to the new DSi appearance-wise. However, it does have two built-in 3 megapixel cameras, an SD Card slot that allows for AAC audio content playback, a slightly larger screen, 256MB of internal memory, and downloadable DSi games via the DSi Shop. The one drawback is a lowered battery life.

The new DSi is not compatible with GBA games, Guitar Hero: On Tour, or theNintendo DS rumble pack - because the front slot is not on the new device.

Nintendo of America said last October that it did not feel necessary to release the DSi in 2008 for the holiday season as its predecessor's sales were continuing at "phenomenal rates."

Up next for OS X: An Apple-branded gaming console?

2009-01-15T22:39:00.001-08:00

Among all the things that Apple trademarked you wouldn't have thought that the company would had applied for the "OS X" trademark as well. Note: "OS X", without the "Mac" prefix. If it were the "Mac OS X" trademark, it would hardly file as news: It is a norm for companies to protect their respective trade names. What Apple's OS X filing reveals though, is an intention to distance the operating system from the Mac realm, indicating Apple's desire to use OS X on a much broader array of gadgets in the future. Some Apple watchers are convinced we will see more OS X software platforms beyond current desktop and mobile OS X. Like a game console, for instance.

Apple originally filed for the "OS X" trademark in Tobago and Trinidad in the weeks following WWDC 2008. In addition, another trademark was filed in Asian trademark office in November 2007. The timing of the original Tobago and Trinidad filings isn't coincidental: It was at the WWDC 2008 where Apple first shed light on new plans about its operating system that used to power only Macs. WWDC show banners in the run-up to the event read "OS X Leopard" and "OS X iPhone", while Apple promoted both OS X flavors under the "world's most advanced operating system" and "world's most advanced mobile platform" taglines, respectively.

True, the new naming could have been purely a marketing or re-branding thing. Such explanations would fall in line with the company's broader re-branding effort that dates back to the January 2007 iPhone introduction when Steve Jobs announced Apple would drop "computer" from its name and would be known from there on as just "Apple, Inc." - indicating that the company wants to become a consumer electronics giant instead of a niche computer player.

But common sense logic suggests that removal of "Mac" prefix from the "OS X" trademark goes deeper than just re-branding. After all, Apple watchers have been saying for some time that the company will keep spawning OS X-based software platforms in the future, and beyond desktop and mobile OS X versions. OS X currently runs inside Apple's Mac desktops and notebooks, in addition to the Apple TV set-top box and the iPhone/iPod touch that both run a modified version of the operating system.

The three OS X flavors share the same essential components, but two of them - OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone - have now become distinct software platforms. Guessing what the third OS X-based software platform might be is another thing. Your guess is as good as ours and we can only speculate at this point, but we can safely assume that OS X will in fact power Apple's future gadgets as well.

Originally based on Mach microkernel (which was derived from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)), combined with parts of FreeBSD and NetBSD Unix implementations, OS X sports an efficient code base with a small memory footprint, making it easily deployable into many form factors - from cellphones to full-blown desktop systems. On top of that, OS X brings a set of libraries and high-level frameworks that take care of networking, audio, video, graphics, power management, input and output, security, communication, multi-core processing, and everything else. In short, OS X wraps everything neatly into a single package that's ripe for use.

We could speculate that Apple might deploy OS X next in a $600 Mac netbook, a Mac tablet or a home entertainment center. It is also entirely possible that none of these products are in the works at all. But if some of these are actually in Apple's queue, they will be most likely based around the existing, perhaps slightly tweaked, desktop or mobile OS X versions.

For example, there is no reason for Apple not to use current OS X Leopard in a rumored Mac netbook since it successfully powers current Macbooks. On a similar note, alleged Mac tablet or an oversized iPod touch could be entirely built around mobile OS X version that powers current generation of iPhone and iPod touch. Finally, a home entertainment device could be entirely built around the same desktop OS X code that powers Apple TV set-top box. But none of these products have the potential to spawn an entirely new OS X software platform like the Mac and the iPhone did.

If you ask us, of all future Apple products that come into mind, only a home gaming console could constitute a third, distinct OS X software platform. For start, a console would require Apple's software team to significantly tweak OS X code in order to optimize it for high-performance computations, graphics and sound - the things that matter the most in game applications.

On top of that, "console OS X" would require some entirely new accompanying components that currently do not exist - like online gaming services, broader support for gaming controllers, more advanced multimedia features with DV-R recording capabilities, in addition to an entirely new user interface. All of this would require more substantial adaptation of the existing desktop OS X code. Especially crafted version of the online game store for online-only games delivery, like the App Store for the iPhone, would complete the picture of the third OS X software platform, in addition to the desktop and mobile OS X platforms.

DisplayPort 1.2 doubles bandwidth, enables Stereoscopic 3D

2009-01-15T09:41:00.001-08:00

And a mini-DisplayPort for laptops

For those who have been following VESA standards,  DisplayPort is a royalty-free digital display interface concept introduced back in May 2006 that has been trying to gain ground in the computer industry for some time now.

The open industry standard, supported by HP, Philips, Samsung, AMD, Nvidia, Intel and many other companies, seeks to eventually replace the de facto DVI standard over the next several years due to its greater bandwidth allowance, slimmer display support, internal chip-to-chip communication, and reduced electromagnetic interference levels among other technical advantages.

According to Register Hardware, VESA is set to publish its new DisplayPort 1.2 specification by the middle of the year.  Among the interface's central improvements include a doubling of available bandwidth to 5.4 Gbit/s.  As a result, this should provide sufficient throughput for 120Hz stereoscopic 3D imagery at 1920 x 1080, or four standard 1920 x 1200 screens.  However, VESA anticipates multi-display setups to be linked in a daisy-chain fashion rather than through a four-way split cable.

Although DisplayPort does lacks xvYCC color space support in contrast to HDMI, the increased bandwidth in the 1.2 specification will also allow 3840 x 2160 resolutions to be reached with a color depth of 30 bits per pixel.

Very soon, laptop vendors will be able to implement the interface in upcoming lineups with the mini-DisplayPort connector. According to Apple, the smaller version of the interface is 10% the size of a full DVI connector.  As a result, there is more free space inside a laptop and on its sides.

Facebook makes a major change to its code

2009-01-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

Today, in a blog post, Facebook announced major changes to the proprietary language in which Facebook applications are written, called Facebook Markup Language (FBML). The code will now be capable of being edited using custom tags which can be shared between multiple applications. Currently, the feature is only available on the site, but it will eventually be shared with all of the Facebook Connect supporting sites on the web. Effectively this means Facebook will now be more open. But the question is, how open?

FBML was designed to make sure that malicious applications would not be able to infect the browsers and PCs of their users. More than likely the new version of FML will take into account security measures so that code can efficiently be shared.

Developers have built many applications on the Facebook platform, the majority of them lack in quality, however, and don’t function well after the site redesign.

With Facebook moving to a more open source platform, it will open the doors to higher quality programs.

We’ll have to wait to see how Facebook moves forward with this development, and whether or not they choose to become a more open software platform.

Apple approves four iPhone web browsers into the App Store, but not mobile Firefox

2009-01-15T00:54:00.000-08:00

Apple has once again loosened its iPhone approval process to allow third-party web browsers into the App Store, those that rival Apple's Mobile Safari which comes preloaded on the handset. As always, there's a catch: Apple's iPhone SDK strictly prohibits applications (web browsers included) from using their own frameworks. This means that all alternative browsers approved for App Store are and will be based on Apple's WebKit framework that powers desktop and mobile Safari versions. As a result, browser like mobile Firefox (dubbed Fennec and based on Mozilla's Gecko framework) remain off App Store's limits for now.

The unexpected news caught Apple watchers off guard since Apple had previously kicked Podcaster applications out of the App Store solely on the grounds that they duplicated the podcasting features found in iTunes software. Apple then added podcast downloading features to the iPhone just weeks later via 2.2 firmware update. Apple also rejected NetShare's modem tethering application, and currently prohibits VoIP applications that use cellular data - both are due to the terms of Apple's agreement with carriers. In addition, some aspects of the iPhone remain off limits to developers, including mostly critical features like the dialer, SMS application, iPod media player, and more.

But Apple has learned a lot since it first allowed third-party applications to run on its handset six months ago. The company has tweaked App Store approval rules several times to address concerns. Most recently, Apple allowed a new kind of entertainment applications that would have been previously rejected because of their tongue-in-cheekiness, like iFart and iSteam.

Early this week, Apple once again loosened restrictions and now allows third-party web browsers to co-exist on the device alongside its own built-in Mobile Safari web browser. Four web browsers that are now available in the App Store are all based on Apple's WebKit engine, the same one which powers mobile and desktop Safari versions as well as several other browsers.

Edge Browser

Edge Browser is not exactly an all-new browser. Instead, it is based on the same engine and framework that Safari uses. Its main feature is the total absence of address and navigation bars so as to maximize screen real estate for displaying web page content. When I say "total absence of address bar," I mean it literally: There is no way to bring up the URL entry field other than resorting to Edge Browser's preferences found in the iPhone's Settings application.

There, you can set the default home page and an associated username and password to log in (if needed) along with several minor options as well. This doesn't bode well for the Edge Browser at all, and the fact that it comes free of charge doesn't change this one iota.

The program remains useless unless developers can come up with a better way enter URLs, thereby providing basic navigation features. Would semi-transparent on-screen navigational controls that fade in when I flick my finger really be that hard to implement?

Incognito

Incognito borrows more than just a name from Chrome's private browsing feature. This browser is dedicated to anonymous web browsing on your iPhone and iPod Touch. It doesn't leave history, and it deletes all files accumulated over browsing session upon exit. Incognito guards your privacy even while playing known media types. It also comes with a customizable homepage and an orientation lock mode.

Overall, it doesn't replicate Safari's browsing experience, and the fact that it comes with a $1.99 price tag doesn't help it out any either. After all, you could always delete browsing history and saved files in Safari manually, as its preferences are found in iPhone's Settings.

Webmate: Tabbed Browser

As its name suggest, this one is all about tabbed browsing - but with a twist. Although Safari lets you open several pages at once and flip between them back and forth, you can't open a link on a page you're currently viewing in a new tab. Besides that, Safari reloads content of each tab as you switch to it - which is pretty annoying if you constantly switch between tabs. Webmate nails down tabs by queuing up all the links you click on, allowing you to view them one by one whenever you want to.

An On/Off switch at the bottom lets you navigate between queuing and standard behavior where links are followed immediately after you click them. Additional controls at the screen's bottom let you cycle through queued links, jump to any link in the queue, or to trash the currently selected link from a queue.

If you desperately need tabbed browsing on your handset, a feature highly valued among those that read lots of news on the go, you may want to consider Webmate. Priced at just 99 cents, it may prove a worthy investment - assuming you live in tabs.

Shaking Web

This $1.99 browser exists to solve the problem of reading web pages while commuting by bus or metro, along with other situations when you can't hold the handset steady. You guessed right, Shaking Web comes with "anti-shake technology" that helps stabilize web page during the user's jostling, thus increasing on the go readability. Similar to Vibration Reduction technology employed in digital camera, Shaking Web is able to compensate for the minor shaking which occurs as a result of body movements when commuting.

It does not, however, miraculously stabilize image in more extreme circumstances, such as when walking down the street during rush hour.Besides, why would you want to surf the web while walking down the street, anyway? You can choose to stabilize only vertical movements - which is the most common scenario for majority of users, or both vertical and horizontal movements. The usefulness factor of this application is limited by its lack of support for pop-up windows. In addition, it does not work with sites that require a new window to open links.

Final thoughts

As you can see, the four non-Safari browsers are not full-blown rivals to Safari, nor are they ones which would offer a better user experience out of the box. Although it is reassuring to know that Apple now allows third-party vendors to rival Mobile Safari on the iPhone, the policy change does not open the doors fully for the arrival of mobile Firefox version (dubbed Fennec), Opera Mini or any of the several other browsers which do not use iPhone's official frameworks. In fact, Apple's iPhone SDK specifically prohibits applications from using non-Apple frameworks. Apple may have left this policy in place for security and user experience reasons, but it is the one fact which also prevents real Safari rivals based on non-Apple technologies from appearing on the iPhone.

That being said, mobile Firefox on the iPhone is out of the question unless Mozilla decides to completely re-write the application using Apple's WebKit framework (instead of Mozilla's Gecko framework that powers mobile and desktop Firefox which, of course, will not happen). When and if Apple decides to allow developers to use other frameworks (besides iPhone's), only then will projects like mobile Firefox hit Apple's handset. For the record, it should be noted that neither Mozilla nor Opera have expressed even the least amount of eagerness to bring their browsers to the iPhone.

How to Get, Install and Play With Windows 7, Pain Free

2009-01-12T22:25:00.000-08:00

You've been thinking about installing Windows 7 Beta 1 now that it's totally available to anyone. Well, here's our complete guide to grabbing, installing and playing with Windows 7—it's (mostly) painless, so no excuses!

Are You Ready?
First thing's first—you might be tired of XP, but can your computer handle Windows 7? Probably! Here are the minimum requirements:
• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• 16 GB of available disk space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
• DVD-R/W Drive (actually not necessary)

Where to Get It
Microsoft is obviously the first stop to getting Windows 7. Here's the download page, where you'll pick either 32 or 64-bit version. If you have 4GB of RAM or more, get 64-bit. You'll need your Live ID and Microsoft will want some info about you, but just lie or tell the truth or whatever, and you'll be taken to a download page with your product key. If you have some trouble getting the download link to work after getting your product key (like me), here are the direct links to the 32-bit image file and 64-bit image file.

Even if Microsoft's own servers are crumbling under the strain of surprisingly strong demand (though I downloaded at 1MB/sec just fine), you can always hit BitTorrent. You're looking for Windows 7 Beta 1, build 7000. Other benefit to torrent: It'll still be available afterMicrosoft's Jan. 24 deadline and you don't need a Microsoft Live ID. But you will need toget your own product key.

Getting Stuff Ready
Windows 7, from everything we've heard is surprisingly stable beta, and it's easy to upgrade from Vista, since it happens automagically. However, that doesn't mean you should run it as your sole OS (especially on your work computer), because your programs might not work with it (they should, but you never know), crash possibilities and other unknown unknowns. should dual boot it, meaning you'll be able to run either OS at startup. Luckily, Lifehacker has a step-by-step guide to doing just that.

It works especially nicely if you have two hard drives in a desktop (like me), but most likely, you'll have to partition. Keep in mind if you're partitioning a single hard drive, the minimum space for Windows 7 is 16GB, and you'll probably want more room than that. Again, Lifehacker has the complete details, but the short version is that in Vista, run "Computer Management" from the Start Menu and you can complete all of the partition voodoo from Disk Management, like shrinking your current volume to give your new Windows 7 partition that minimum 16GB of breathing room. And you know, actually creating the fresh partition for Windows 7. (Do that now, and remember which one it is!) For XP, you'll need the GParted Live CD, which you burn to a CD, restart, boot from disc, and do the partition thang.

How to Get Windows 7 on Your computer
After getting install downloaded and hard drive prepped, you've got a couple of options for actually getting Windows 7 onto your computer. The first, and easiest, is to make a Windows 7 disc by burning the image to a DVD using something like ImgBurn.

If you're installing Windows 7 on a Mac, you can burn the image to a DVD with Disk Utility.

Or, you can do what I'm doing since I'm out of blank DVDs at the moment, and put it on a flash drive for installation. This is also how you'll get it on a netbook or MacBook Air. You'll need a 4GB USB 2.0 flash drive and a mounting program likeDaemon Tools on Windows or MountMe on Mac. Format the flash drive in FAT32, mount the Windows 7 image, then copy everything over to the flash drive.

Installing
Hello easy part! Pop in your disc or your flash drive. Boot from it, and follow the wizard, installing Windows 7 on your clean partition (under Custom installation type). On a Mac, Boot Camp Assistant will take you through the process after you slide in the Windows disc.Make sure it's the right partition or you will hose your actual current Windows install. Then go watch some TV or take a poop while it does its thing. Come back, and you'll have a few more setup screens—hope you wrote your license key down!—then you'll be up and rolling with Windows 7.

Now what?
The initial setup is fast and easy, but you might wanna check out your driver situation. Mac users, for instance, have a little bit of work ahead of them, since you'll have to install drivers from the OS X disc, and if you're running 64-bit, download theBoot Camp 2.1 update.

Well, there's a lot to check out in Windows 7. Like the new Media Center, which has 10 new features we're really hyped about, like sweet dissolve effects, turboscrolling, virtual channels and remote copying.

The new taskbar is one of its major new UI features that's both exciting and at first a little confusing, since it works a lot differently than the taskbar you're used. Checking out Microsoft's video tour before you jump might save you some frustration. There's also Aero Shake, which knocks all the clutter off your desktop instantly; Snap, with its instant window resizing; and Peek, which is like turbocharged thumbnail previews.

Oh, and whatever you guys do, don't play your MP3s in Windows Media Player, since it could corrupt them! Update: There's a patch out for this issue, here's the 64-bit download and here's the 32-bit.

There's definitely a lot to play around with. Let us know in the comments once you get your install running what else you think people should check out as soon as they get their machine fired up! If you've got any other install tricks, let us know about those too!

Nvidia to have two high end chips in 09

2009-01-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

CES 2009: DirectX 10, 40nm and DX11

We've learned that Nvidia plans two chips for its high end roadmap of 2009. The first one is 40nm GT200 derived chip and the big rumour surrounding it is that this chip will be sort of an optical shrink of the existing GT200.

This would mean that the spec would not change, but that the transistors would get smaller, and so would the TDP and the chip itself, but at the same time 40nm is not an optical shrink process. Nvidia has to develop the chip for it, not just optically shrink it, which dramatically complicates things.

We expect that the new GT200 derived 40nm product will have at least a few more clusters, shaders, TMUs and ROPs, naturally all at higher clocks.

The second chip that should be with us in late 2009 is a DirectX 11 part. Nvidia needs it more than ATI, as it decided to skip DirectX 10.1 and all of its advantages. This chip is rumoured to be based on a new architecture that some call GT300, and we decide to call it Geforce 11, but we have only a few sketchy details about it, DirectX 11 support being the major one.

Console prices to drop before summer

2009-01-12T22:13:00.000-08:00

Both Xbox 360 and PS3 to see cuts

With the exceptional sales numbers that Nintendo did with the Wii this holiday season, it is now expected that both Microsoft and Sony will make additional price cuts to remain competitive and to capture more market share, but each will do it for different reasons.

According to our sources, Sony will likely hold off on a major price cut of the PlayStation 3 till the June time frame. With PS3 software sales growing, the company may not feel that cutting the price any sooner than necessary would be a good thing at this point because of the poor initial yields and the longer ramp-up to get die shrinks, as well as other cost reductions. If our sources are correct, expect to see a $299 PlayStation 3 arrive in April.

Once Sony makes its move into the $299 range, we expect Microsoft to respond with a price cut to $249 on their Pro system bundle. We expect to see this cut either right before or after E3 in the June time frame. We also expect to see a slight price cut on the Elite system in this time frame, as well, but our sources are doubtful that the price cut on the Elite system will be a full $50. The Arcade bundle will continue to stay at $199 and be the price leader.

We think that once Sony slashes the price of the PlayStation 3 to $299, you will see sales of the console grow again; but as soon as Microsoft moves the Pro bundle to $249, we think that sales for Sony have the potential to stall if Microsoft announces a stellar slate of titles for the Xbox 360 at E3.

As for the Wii, we are doubtful that you will see a price cut. However, we do expect Nintendo to make some changes to the console in favor of cost reduction to boost profit on the Wii console sales. We also expect to see some developers moving to announce and release more titles for the Wii. We don’t expect hard core titles to come to the Wii in droves, so most hard core gamers will still stay away from the Wii and opt for the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3.

Google Chrome browser heading to Macs

2009-01-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

Another browser takes aim at Safari

Some people love the Safari browser, others hate it. If you happen to be one of the latter, you just might appreciate the imminent arrival of Google Chrome for the Mac. Then again, you might be perfectly happy with Firefox.

Google Chrome has been confirmed for the 'first half' of 2009, which admittedly is vague, but at the same time, not too far off. It is being developed alongside the Linux version and according to Chrome product manager Brian Rakowski, the browser is working right now as a 'test shell', able to show web pages, but little else. 'We have not spent any time building out features. We're still iterating on making it stable and getting the architecture right,' he added.

So it looks like being a case of better late than never. But look on the bright side, Google updated Chrome 14 times between beta and full launch on the PC, resulting in a browser 50 per cent faster and far more secure. When it launches on the Mac, it just might hit the ground running.

Ubuntu pushes to bring Linux to the masses

2009-01-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

They are either hapless pests or the very people capable of overthrowing Windows. Take your pick.

In December, hundreds of these software developers gathered for one week at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. They came from all over the world, sporting many of the usual signs of software mercenaries: jeans, ponytails, unruly facial hair and bloodshot eyes.

But rather than preparing to code for the highest bidder, the developers were coordinating their largely volunteer effort to try to undermine Microsoft's Windows operating system for PCs, which generated close to $17 billion in sales last year.

All the fuss at the meeting centered on something called Ubuntu and a man named Mark Shuttleworth, the charismatic 35-year-old billionaire from South Africa who functions as the spiritual and financial leader of this coding clan.

Created just over four years ago, Ubuntu (pronounced oo-BOON-too) has emerged as the fastest-growing and most celebrated version of the Linux operating system, which competes with Windows primarily through its low, low price: $0.More than 10 million people are estimated to run Ubuntu today, and they represent a threat to Microsoft's hegemony in developed countries and perhaps even more so in those regions catching up to the technology revolution.

"If we're successful, we would fundamentally change the operating system market," Shuttleworth said during a break at the gathering, the Ubuntu Developer Summit. "Microsoft would need to adapt, and I don't think that would be unhealthy."

Linux is free, but there is still money to be made for businesses flanking the operating system. Companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell place Linux on more than 10 percent of the computers they sell as servers, and businesses pay the hardware makers and others, like the software sellers Red Hat and Oracle, to fix any problems and keep their Linux-based systems up to date.

But Canonical, Shuttleworth's company, which makes Ubuntu, has decided to focus its near-term aspirations on the PCs used by workers and people at home.

The notion of a strong Linux-based competitor to Windows and, to a lesser extent, Apple's Mac OS X has been an enduring dream of advocates of open-source software. They champion the idea that software that can be freely altered by the masses can prove cheaper and better than proprietary code produced by stodgy corporations.

Try as they might, however, Linux zealots have failed in their quest to make Linux mainstream on desktop and notebook computers. The often-quirky software remains in the realm of geeks, not grandmothers.

With Ubuntu, the devotees believe, things might finally be different.

"I think Ubuntu has captured people's imaginations around the Linux desktop," said Chris DiBona, the program manager for open-source software at Google. "If there is a hope for the Linux desktop, it would be them."

Close to half of Google's 20,000 employees use a slightly modified version of Ubuntu, playfully called Goobuntu.

People encountering Ubuntu for the first time will find it very similar to Windows. The operating system has a slick graphical interface, familiar menus and all the common desktop software: a Web browser, an e-mail program, instant-messaging software and a free suite of programs for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Mainstream technology companies have taken notice of the enthusiasm around Ubuntu. Dell started to sell PCs and desktops with the software in 2007, and IBM more recently began making Ubuntu the basis of a software package that competes against Windows.

Canonical, based in London, has more than 200 full-time employees, but its total work force stretches well beyond that, through an army of volunteers. The company paid for close to 60 volunteers to attend its developer event, considering them important contributors to the operating system. An additional 1,000 work on the Debian project and make their software available to Canonical, while 5,000 spread information about Ubuntu on the Internet. And 38,000 have signed up to translate the software into different languages.

When a new version of the operating system becomes available, Ubuntu devotees pile onto the Internet, often crippling Web sites that distribute the software. And hundreds of other organizations, mostly universities, also help in the distribution.

The technology research firm IDC estimates that 11 percent of American businesses have systems based on Ubuntu. That said, many of the largest Ubuntu customers have cropped up in Europe, where Microsoft's dominance has endured intense regulatory and political scrutiny.

The Macedonian education department relies on Ubuntu, providing 180,000 copies of the operating system to children, while the Spanish school system has 195,000 Ubuntu desktops. In France, the National Assembly and the Gendarmerie Nationale, the military police force, rely on Ubuntu for a combined 80,000 PCs. "The word 'free' was very important," said Rudy Salles, vice president of the assembly, noting that it allowed the legislature to abandon Microsoft.

Canonical's model makes turning a profit difficult.

Many open-source companies give away a free version of their software that has some limitations, while selling a full-fledged version along with complementary services for keeping the software up to date. Canonical gives away everything, including its top product, then hopes that companies will still turn to it for services like managing large groups of servers and desktops instead of handling everything themselves with in-house experts.

Canonical also receives revenue from companies like Dell that ship computers with Ubuntu and work with it on software engineering projects like adding Linux-based features to laptops. All told, Canonical's annual revenue is creeping toward $30 million, Shuttleworth said.

That figure will not worry Microsoft.

But Shuttleworth contends that $30 million a year is self-sustaining revenue, just what he needs to finance regular Ubuntu updates. And a free operating system that pays for itself, he says, could change how people view and use the software they touch everyday.

"Are we creating world peace or fundamentally changing the world? No," he said. "But we could shift what people expect and the amount of innovation per dollar they expect."

Microsoft had an estimated 10,000 people working on Vista, its newest desktop operating system, for five years. The result of this multibillion-dollar investment has been a product late to market and widely panned. Canonical, meanwhile, releases a fresh version of Ubuntu every six months, adding features that capitalize on the latest advances from developers and component makers like Intel. The company's model centers on outpacing Microsoft on both price and features aimed at new markets.

"It feels pretty clear to me that the open process produces better stuff," Shuttleworth said.

LG Display Signs LCD Supply Deal with Apple

2009-01-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

South Korea's LG Display said it had signed a deal to supply LCD panels to Apple for five years.

The world's second-biggest maker of LCD screens did not disclose the total size of the deal but said in a filing to the Korea Exchange that it would receive a $500 million advance from Apple this month.

"Although LG Display already had a relationship with Apple, the deal's duration and the size of the advance show that the two companies are involved in a long-term, strategic alliance," said Son Young-jun, a spokesman for LG Display.

Shares in LG Display were up 3.37 percent at 24,550 won in the morning session, outperforming the wider market's 1.17 percent drop, but analysts were quick to discount the impact of the announcement.

"LG Display's panels already represent more than 70 percent of Apple's notebooks and monitors," said Park Sang-hyun, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities.

"The share performance may be due to the fact that the decline in panel prices is not expected to continue," Park said, referring to the steep price drops the LCD industry has experienced this year in the wake of the global slowdown and an industry oversupply.

LG trails domestic rival Samsung Electronics in the LCD market but ranks ahead of Taiwan'sAU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp.

CES 2009: Creative Goes Sound Blaster Happy for iTunes

2009-01-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Creative is getting deeper into iTunes/iPods territory as the likes of it and Sony continue to concede to Apple's iPod dominance. The latest evidence to support the “if you can't beat them, join them” movement is the new Sound Blaster for iTunes, announced today and pricing around $100.

The Sound Blaster for iTunes, said Creative, is about the size of a USB thumb drive and connects to a USB port on a computer. It allows one to wirelessly connect a PC or Mac to speakers when listening to iTunes or MP3 music, which suggests you can probably use this setup with any media program.

Music broadcast from this device can be played back wirelessly through various wireless Creative speakers or headphones in up to four different zones around the home. Other powered speaker systems can also be tied via special Creative wireless receivers.

Creative says any music played through its SoundBlaster for iTunes will sound better via its audio enhancing X-Fi technology. Consumers will be able to test this out for themselves when it becomes available in the spring.

CES 2009: iPhone may get GPGPU acceleration

2009-01-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

Imagination Technologies will announce a new version of its graphics chip IP tomorrow. The PowerVR SGX543 is the firm’s first multi-core capable GPU technology which scales to, in theory, an unlimited number of cores and offer support for GPGPU acceleration. While Imagination’s technology is known to be integrated in graphics products from Intel and Texas Instruments in the past, this new version is especially interesting since Apple could have access to it and may be planning a powerful graphics engine with GPGPU acceleration for one of the next iPhones. Conceivably, the next iPhone could become a much more capable gaming platform than the Nintendo DS or PSP.

There has been quite some speculation about Apple’s future processor and chipset plans for upcoming iPhone generations, especially since we know that Apple has licensed Imagination’s GPU technology blueprints and even invested in the company. When we heard that Imagination would be at CES, we were curious whether there was more in this story and if there are more details what technologies Apple may have licensed. Of course, we know that Apple keeps its customers and suppliers on a tight leash and it was not surprising that Imagination’s representatives were tight-lipped about the Apple relationshipand in fact declined to comment on any products Apple will have access to.

But we know that Imagination’s licensing policy does not allow customers to modify the architecture of the company’s designs. (Also, Apple’s investment does not provide the company with more access to Imagination technology. We were told that Apple’s investment has purely financial reasons.) If we assume that Apple will take advantage of its product license, then common sense would suggest that Apple would at least use the firm’s most current PowerVR SGX design (which is also used by Intel in the GMA500 chipset) or, more likely, Imagination’s next-generation product design. If you have read my previous articles covering the iPhone, then you know that I am very critical about the iPhone in general and its capability as a phone in particular. However, if Imagination’s claim about the new design’s capabilities can be carried over into an actual physical product and if Apple is in fact using the design, then I am convinced that the next iPhones will leapfrog the current phone in processing power and feature set. The hardware will enable the company to create entirely new applications as well as features you are used to from your PC, but are not available on your cellphone - such as printing or scanning/faxing.

Imagination did not reveal many details about its new design, the PowerVR SGX543 (5 for series, 4 for performance and 3 to indicate that it is part of the Power VR Extended product line), in terms of numbers since clock speed, resulting performance or power consumption largely depend on the specs a hardware designer chooses. But we were told that the shader performance has been increased by about 40% and that the GPU delivers about 2.5x the image processing performance of an ARM Cortex-8 CPU and outperforms the a 600 MHz ARM chip in some traditional CPU benchmarks with a 100 MHz design. Power consumption is also down, but company representatives indicated that “a huge leap has not been made”.

The new 543 isn’t about power consumption; it is about performance and features. It is multi-core capable - 543 chips can run in parallel - with power consumption and space constraints being the main limitations for the number of cores - and can translate into very capable hardware for devices such as netbooks, MIDs, set top boxes and mobile phones. According to Imagination, one core delivers a performance of 35 million polygons per second and a fill rate of 1 Gigapixel per second at 200 MHz.

While Imagination declined to comment on speculation whether this may be hardware Apple is currently working with, it seems to be a conclusive thought that the chip may end up in a future iPhone or iPod. The iPhone 3G uses a “light” PowerVR MBX design, the predecessor of the current PowerVR SGX, and represents the least capable graphics engine Imagination offers for licensing at this time. The 543 could lift the iPhone into a whole new gaming category, but graphics capability may not be the most interesting feature of this chip: It supports GPGPU acceleration via OpenCL as well.

Imagination confirmed that there are several research projects going on now, trying to come up with applications that exploit the hidden horsepower in the graphics chip to run existing applications faster or enable entirely new applications. In the end, Imagination believes, the CPU may only be the coordinator of application processes, while the GPU will be doing more and more work the CPU has done in the past.

The company said that potential GPGPU applications could include print capability (if you think about it, there is no print feature in current smartphones, due to the fact that there is no print processor) as well as much more advanced features such as the ability to scan and fax a document - or parking assistants in automotive applications.

I have said it before and I said it again: GPGPU acceleration may turn into the most significant hardware and software advances in decades and to see that technology emerge on the cellphone as well is exciting. However, Imagination has just begun to license the 543 design, which means that it will take about 18 months for phones that are equipped with the chip to become available for sale. The next iPhone may not get this chip, but rely on the current SGX version (which is a significant step up from the MBX chip.) But two generations out, the 543 could be a stunning platform and the iPhone may run applications you can only run on your PC today.

AMD launches Mobility Radeon HD 4000 GPUs

2009-01-09T09:17:00.001-08:00

Barely six months after debuting on the desktop, AMD's RV770 graphics processor is going mobile. AMD has announced a whole range of Mobility Radeon HD 4000 GPUs for notebooks, and the highest-end parts have surprisingly tantalizing specs.

The Mobility Radeon HD 4800 series is derived from the same RV770 silicon that powers the desktop Radeon HD 4870, and it looks pretty similar on paper: 800 stream processors, support for both GDDR5 and GDDR3 memory types, a 256-bit memory interface, and CrossFire capability. Obviously, though, AMD has made some tweaks and reduced clock speeds to keep power consumption in check. The company says it'll be up to notebook makers to set exact clocks, but it expects the fastest Mobility Radeon HD 4800 graphics modules to slip into power envelopes smaller than 75W.

In much the same vein, the Mobility Radeon HD 4600 series is based on the same silicon as desktop Radeon HD 4600 offerings: both have GPUs with 514 million transistors, 320 SPs, and 128-bit memory interfaces. AMD told us the 4500 and 4300 Mobility offerings have GPUs similar to their desktop brethren, too.

	SPs	Transistors	Computing power	Memory interface	Memory types	Memory bandwidth
Mobility Radeon HD 4800	800	956 million	880 GFLOPS	256-bit	GDDR3, GDDR5	89.6GB/s
Mobility Radeon HD 4600	320	514 million	432 GFLOPS	128-bit	DDR2, DDR3, GDDR3	25.6GB/s
Mobility Radeon HD 4500 and 4300	80	242 million	108 GFLOPS	64-bit	DDR2, DDR3, GDDR3	12.8GB/s

These similarities are especially noteworthy in light of Nvidia's fastest mobile GPU—the GeForce 9800M GTX—which has a lot in common with the $130 GeForce 9800 GT.

Speaking of the GeForce 9M line, AMD's new Mobility Radeons have an equivalent feature that lets users switch back and forth between discrete and integrated GPUs without rebooting. AMD says the switch can be either manually triggered or automatic (occurring when the system is plugged into AC power), and according to this page, this feature works with Intel chipsets.

AMD didn't tell us which notebook makers will introduce Radeon HD 4000-based laptops, but the company snagged design wins from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Gateway, Asus, and many others with its Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series. In fact, Asus announced new N81Vp and N51Tp laptops with Mobility Radeon HD 4600 GPUs just yesterday. AMD expects the bulk of Mobility Radeon HD 4000-based notebooks to start shipping in the March-April time frame.

ViewSonic enters netbook/nettop market

2009-01-09T09:16:00.001-08:00

Announces three new systems

Although ViewSonic has tried to make inroads into the low-end PC market in the past, it's latest Cloud Computing Initiative is taking things to a whole new level with three new systems which consists of a netbook, an all-in-one system and a really tiny nettop.

Let's start with the netbook which is simply called the VieBook. It doesn't have any real stand-out features as it's based on the standard Atom N270 processor and the 945GSE chipset, has 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 10/100Mbit Ethernet, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3Megapixel webcam and a memory card reader. The battery life is meant to be good for 3h of usage and the VieBook weighs in at 1.18kg.
It's expected to hit retail in the US next month for a MSRP of $429 (€312/£282).

Next up is the VPC100 which is a all-in-one system with an 18.5in LCD panel. Although no specifications are mentioned for the panel, we have a feeling that it will only offer 1,366x768 resolution, as it's a 16:9 panel and we haven't seen any 18.5in panels with higher resolution than this. The hardware specs seems to be similar to the VieBook, although we're not sure of hte VPC100 uses the Atom N270 or 230, as there are no details as to which CPU is used.

On the upside, ViewSonic has added Gigabit Ethernet and an DVD writer. ViewSonic is targeting schools, internet cafe's, office workers and a range of other usage models with the VPC100. The VPC100 is expected to be available sometime in Q1 this year for a MSRP of US$549 (€400/£360)

Finally we have what seems to be the most interesting device of the three, the ViePC. This tiny little system is once again using an unspecified 1.6GHz Atom processor, comes with 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive (ViewSonic must've got a good deal on these drives), Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g WiFi, D-sub and what at least according to the picture looks like DVI (no mention of it in the press release), four USB 2.0 ports and oddly enough a serial port. The ViePC will be available from March for a MSRP of US$399 (€291/£262)

CES 2009: Sony unveils world's lightest eight inch notebook

2009-01-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

This evening at CES, Sony unveiled its new VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC, the world's lightest 8" notebook. "About the size of a business envelope and roughly as thin as a cell phone, the VAIO Lifestyle PC weighs just 1.4 pounds and is small enough to slip into a jacket pocket or handbag while integrating full-PC features," including running Vista.

The 8" notebook features a 1600 x 768 LED backlit LCD display, WAN 3G, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, webcam, and up to eight hours of battery life via an option.

The 8" notebook uses a 1600 x 768 built atop Sony's XBRIGHT-ECO LED backlit LCD ultra-wide display. It includes built-in WAN 3G mobile broadband on the Verizon network, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, a built-in webcam, four hours of battery life with the standard battery, and an eight-hour battery option.

It's powered by an Intel Atom 1.33 GHz CPU, 2x 1 GB memory (2 GB total), a built-in eSATA 128 GB SSD, two USB 2.0 connectors, headphone, line-in, one SD slot, one Memory Stick Duo media slot.

It includes a real-time GPS, and an instant-mode option allowing the notebook to boot into Sony's Xcross Media Bar interface (separate from the OS), allowing access to music, video, photos and the web. It comes standard with Windows Vista, and supports applications typically available in larger notebooks.

The VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC costs $900. It will be available for pre-order tomorrow at www.sony.com/pr/pseries, and later this month at Sony Style stores, and most major retailers beginning in February.

CES 2009: Sony announces an iPod Touch rival - the X Series Walkman

2009-01-07T20:59:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday at CES, Sony’s Walkman line of portable media devices received a total makeover as the company announced a brand new touch-screen, Internet ready portable media player. Deemed the X series Walkman, the device comes equipped with a 3-inch, 16:9 touch display. The company seems to be sending a direct message to Apple: “we started the portable media game with the Walkman radio, and we’d like to redeem ourselves”.

X Series Walkman

The player includes digital noise cancellation, which is said to be more effective and accurate than the previous analog noise cancellation feature used in other Sony Walkman devices.

Sony's new X Series Walkman, rivals Apple's iPod Touch.

One of the most impressive features on the device is the addition of wireless Internet functions. This will be the first Walkman to have Internet capabilities. Sony claims the X Series will come equipped with direct access to YouTube via a menu feature. Users will be able to download Podcasts and surf the net on a yet-to-be named web browser. Using the device will be much like using the iPod touch. The X Series Walkman's browser will not support Adobe Flash-based sites, but will still be able to surf the rest of the web.

The X Series will be available in 16 GB and 32 GB capacities, with standard audio file support including MP3, WMA, AAC, and MPEG-4, AVC, and WMV for video viewing.

The cost of the device has yet to be released, but Sony claims the device will hit shelves this Summer. See Sony's X Series Walkman page for additional pics.

W Series Walkman

Sony used CES 2009 as an opportunity to announce another Walkman series, called the W (for wearable). The device is in the same class as the iPod shuffle, having no screen. It is meant for someone on the go, running, working out, etc. The player itself is built into the included headphones.

The W is equipped with a feature called “Zappin” which is similar to a scan feature on a car stereo system, rather than scrolling through radio stations, it instead scrolls your music library. This allows users to sift through their music and stop on whatever song they wish, thus “zap”ing it.

Sony's new W Series Walkman, similar to iPod Nano. No screen, player is built into headphones.

Sony claims that the device takes a mere 30 minutes to charge fully, but the battery will only last for 12 hours under normal playback. This device will be offered at a relatively low price of $69 for 2 GB storage. It will be available in stores in the Spring. See Sony's W Series Walkman page for additional pics.

Additional accessory devices

These devices will not be released alone. Sony plans to offer a line of Walkman accessories ranging from docks to headphones that are iPod compatible. Among the array is the ZS-S4iP Boombox that works with the iPhone, allowing one to take calls and listen to tunes simultaneously. At this point there is no release date for the dock, but it does come in white or black for $99. See Sony's Walkman accessory page for additional pics.

Sony is now producing Extra Bass Headphones, the MDR-XB700, that offer heavy bass. Costing the consumer $129.99(!!), these headphones will be the most expensive in the Extra Bass line which also has other products costing less than $100, such as the MDR-XB500 and MDR-XB300. The Extra Bass line will be on the market and available in February. No image is available on Sony's website for MDR-XB700. Below is shown an MDR-XB500.

New line of Extra Bass headphones, shown MDR-XB500. A larger MDR-XB700 is available, though is not currently pictures on Sony's website

IBM deploys Lotus Notes on Mac and iPhone

2009-01-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

IBM made two big Mac-related announcements today that may positively impact Mac's perception in enterprise. The company said its Lotus Notes 8.5 collaboration software is now available for Macs with OS X Leopard, and announced that Lotus Symphony suite (document, spreadsheet and presentation applications) will be available for Macs free of charge later this month. In addition, a new Lotus iNotes 8.5 software now allows anyone with a Notes licence to access Notes through a Safari browser on desktop and mobile Safari browser.

The company claims that an all-new Lotus Notes 8.5 business collaboration suite also incorporates social computing elements, in addition to savvy storage technology, sleek interface and speedy performance.

With over 140 million licences already in use worldwide, and twenty years in existence, Lotus Notes is a viable corporate email and communications platform that competes with Microsoft Exchange. Lotus Notes availability for the Mac makes Apple's platform more appealing in business environment, and many major organizations, like Discovery Communications, are already using Lotus Notes 8.5 for Mac.

The software, also available for Windows and Linux, integrates with Lotus Quickr to enable file sharing among teams, and Lotus Sametime to deliver unified communication solution across the web, mobile and desktop worlds.

For instance, users can easily see who is online or available to initiate VoIP or instant messaging session. More complex features include persistent chats and screen sharing to ease knowledge sharing with large groups in real time.

Lotus Notes 8.5 employs an intelligent storage handling that decrease storage expenses, especially in large business, by ensuring that only one copy of an attachment is kept on the mail server, resulting in around 40 percent space savings.

Speedy performance of Lotus Notes 8.5 on the Mac draws from code that's optimized for the latest Leopard features and Apple hardware. Social networking features include integration with online calendars from Google, Yahoo and others which can be shown along business calendars in one view.

Anyone with a Notes user licence can also use the new Lotus iNotes 8.5 web application to access business email, calendarand contacts on a corporate Lotus servers through a Safari web browser on your Mac or the iPhone.

Lotus iNotes lets users see their Lotus inbox on the handset, read email messages and reply to them, attach and send files in a message, get access to the calendar, meetings, events, reminders, and anniversaries, access the corporate contacts database and create new contact entries. The application also supports most widgets that extend capabilities and enables users to integrate the Notes calendar with Google calendar.

Macworld 2009: Viximo unveils iPhone flirting application

2009-01-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

Social networking and entertainment application dominate the App Store catalogue. But despite several dozen exciting iPhone social networking applications, there's still an certain void in terms of quality matchmaking applications. Enter Viximo...

One would be right to assume that the iPhone's Internet capabilities and attractive user interface combined with raw horse power and sheer hype constitute the perfect platform for matchmaking on the go. Right? Well Viximo, creator of the turnkey virtual gifting platform for the web, bets there is untapped potential in flirting on your mobile. So, it has unleashed iPhone application that lets users "flirt with style," just the way Apple intended.

Previously, flirting on your iPhone was limited to exchanging text messages and ringing someone and then hanging up. Sure, you can tap any of the social networking application on App Store to get in contact with that special?? someone you secretly like, but none of them are crafted for just flirting alone.

All of this is about to change as Massachusetts-based Viximo has announced a new iPhone application dubbed TrueFlirt at Macworld 2009. It adds an engaging social call-to-action through virtual gifting, flirting and digital communication.

One unique selling point of TrueFlirt is the ability to send fully-interactive virtual "flirts" that combine simple social messages with gorgeous animation.

It's the latter and the incredible eye-candy that fully explains the "flirt with style" tagline, but the fun doesn't stop here. Animated content and sound respond to tilting and multitouch gestures, providing the sense of flirting with immediacy.

For example, you can offer your beloved one a virtual Love Potion that bubbles and pours when he or she taps or shakes the handset. There's a virtual fortune cookie that can be opened by shaking the iPhone to reveal a romance prediction. TrueFlirt also pushes the envelope with light sexual innuendo, such as a bachelor pad Flirt that has you tapping objects in the scene to uncover things like a hidden waterbed and disco ball.

"More than half of the 50-100 SMS text messages sent daily by the average 14-24 year old are flirtatious in nature. TrueFlirt was designed to make dating and getting a date less stressful and more playful and fun," said Rob Frasca, CEO of Viximo. "The iPhone is the ideal device for adding a deeper layer to the social dialogue and taking the art of flirting up a notch."

Privately-held Viximo also announced a content creation platform that enables interactive designers to create native iPhone content for the company's iPhone applications, including TrueFlirt, and then monetize on it.

Basically, the ecosystem Viximo now offers is comprised of the virtual gifting platform for the web, and the iPhone and developer tools which let anyone create digital goodies for Viximo's applications, all with minimal coding and wide range of multimedia features.

Content creation features include short animations, a rich audio and sound effects system, and support for iPhone multitouch input and 2D-3D sprites. Viximo also has distribution partnerships with online gaming sites Quibblo and WorldWinner, as well as popular Facebook applications "We're Related," "Always Athletes," "Birthday Calendar" and "Family Tree" that extends reach of its gifting content significantly.

Viximo expects TrueFlirt to hit App Store within a few days. A Lite version of the application will enable you to receive Flirts and send FlirtBacks described as "clever, preloaded multiple choice Flirt responses."

Full version will be a $5.99 value for the privilege of sending Flirts, and will come preloaded with eleven animated flirts. In addition to preloaded content, new Flirts and Flirt Collections will be automatically added as they are posted on the company's server, with some featuring popular musicians, movie characters and pop culture icons.

CES 2009: USB 3.0 slower than expected

2009-01-07T06:54:00.001-08:00

USB 3.0 may promise data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gb/s or 625 MB/s but such levels will not be possible, at least not in initial devices. When USB 3.0 hardware will become available in late 2009 or early 2010, users will have to settle for one fourth of the theoretical maximum bandwidth.

Readers who have been following the history of USB may remember that USB 2.0 was a rather underwhelming technology when it showed up in first products in late 2001. While it promised a data transfer rate of up to 480 Gb/s, the real life numbers were much closer to 250 Gb/s. It took several years until the technology improved and finally came closer to its 480 Gb/s specification.

A representative for the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) told TG Daily that USB 3.0 will go through a similar evolution and not reach the promised 5 Gb/s initially. A prototype USB 3.0 hard drive on display at CES 2009 topped out a 165 MB/s in read operations and at 125 MB/s in write processes.

We need to stress that this was a (very fragile) hard drive prototype and bandwidth is likely to improve somewhat until actual products hit the market. However, we are told that we should not expect much more than 150 MB/s. Of course, that is still more than twice the maximum bandwidth of USB 2.0 and will be more than “enough” performance for most peripheral devices. For example, there are only few solid state disk drives that exceed a data transfer rate of 150 MB/s at this time.

Apple launches new 17in MacBook Pro

2009-01-07T06:44:00.001-08:00

With eight hours battery life

Apple has finally gotten around to launching a new 17in MacBook Pro, but it doesn't really have a lot of exciting new features, as internally it's very similar to the 15in MacBook Pro. The real seller is the claimed 8h battery life which we're sure some people will jump on.

At 2.5cm thickness there's no denying that this is a very slim 17in notebook and at 2.99kg it weighs less than most 15in notebooks. The display has been given a major overhaul and now you get a 1,920x1,200 LED backlit unit. Sadly it's got a reflective coating, but for US$50 Apple will replace it with a matte coating.

Compared to the 15in MacBook Pro, the 17in model has one extra USB 2.0 port, making it a total of three and the remaining ports are identical with mini DisplayPort, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet and two audio jacks. The graphics solution is also the same with the Geforce 9400 chipset and a discrete Geforce 9600 GPU with 512MB of GDDR3 memory.

The CPU options are between a 2.66 and a 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo processor, both with 6MB L2 cache and a 1,066MHz bus. 4GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 memory comes as standard, but this can be upgraded to 8GB for a hefty fee. The default hard drive is a 320GB 5,400rpm SATA drive with a 7,200rpm upgrade option. You also have the choice of going for a 128 or 256GB SSD drive, but at a very steep upgrade premium.

Other features include a slot loaded SuperDrive as Apple likes to call them, 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR. However, the biggest selling point of the 17in MacBook Pro is the new battery which Apple claims can last up to 8h on a single charge. It's not removable, as Apple has had it custom made to fit the slim chassis of the 17in MacBook Pro. If you enable the discrete graphics the battery life is meant to drop to 7h, but this is still very good compared to most notebooks. Apple also claims that this new battery can be recharged 1000 times and they offer a trade in program once it's time to swap the batter out.

The new 17in MacBook Pro starts at US$2,799, although in Europe it goes for €2,499 and in the UK for £1,949. It actually makes the UK pricing cheaper than the European pricing by a fair bit due to the drop in the Pound compared to the Euro. It seems like most Europeans gets shafted once more, as from a quick check at the Apple store, this is the highest price in the world at the moment for the 17in MacBook Pro. Even Sweden with a 25 percent VAT rate gets away with paying €2,389 for it. For those lucky enough to live in Spain, the price is €2,399 and if you fancy a trip to Luxembourg you can get it for €2,375.

AMD gets official nod for Abu Dhabi joint venture

2009-01-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

US says OK

AMD has received an approval from US authorities for a joint venture with capital from two Abu Dhabi investment firms. The cash will be used to help it compete against Intel and the US authorities were a bit worried about the security implications of giving so much technical detail to an Arab country.

In the end the plan was cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The venture is with the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), a firm owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. ATIC will own a 55.6 percent share of the venture.

The deal means that AMD through its joint outfit "The Foundry Company" will keep its manufacturing facilities in Dresden, Germany with plans to expand that site as well as build a state-of-the art facility in Saratoga County, New York. The Foundry Company will be based in Silicon Valley, and its research and development and manufacturing teams in New York, Dresden, and Austin, Texas.

Another Abu Dhabi investment firm, the Mubadala Development will increase its investment in AMD to 19.3 percent from the current 8.1 percent through the purchase of shares and warrants worth 314 million US dollars.

Sharp enter the 8 megapixel race with SH1810C for China

2009-01-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

Sharp introduced two new GSM clamshell phones - the slim SH6010C and the 8 megapixel SH1810C. The SH6010C is a mid-ranger in a stainless steel body, while the high-end cameraphone will rely on its 8 MP CCD sensor, 6-axis accelerometer and WVGA display resolution to attract consumers.

The new handset announcement for the Chinese market certainly caught us by surprise. We haven't seen a new GSM handset from Sharp for quite some time now.

The first and more impressive handset is the 8 megapixel Sharp SH1810C with flip design. Sharp have chosen a CCD sensor for their camera - it's more energy hungry than the CMOS ones, but with presumably lower noise levels.

Sharp SH1810C

The SH1810C features a 3-inch TFT screen with the WVGA resolution of 854x480 pixels, external one-row display, video recording at 30 fps, camera flash and 6-axis accelerometer. The Sharp SH1810C is an ordinary tri-band GSM with GPRS/EDGE support. There is no 3G connectivity but China doesn't have a consumer 3G network yet.

The slim Sharp SH6010C is the second device. It features a 3.2 megapixel snapper, 2.6-inch TFT display with 400x240 resolution and 262 000 colors, stainless steel body with 12.9mm thickness.

Midrange Sharp SH6010C and its external display

The interesting thing about SH6010C is the small external monochrome display unusually embedded on the back near the camera. The phone will come in five different colors - silver, gold, black, pink and blue.

There is no information on prices and availability on both phones.

Motorola's New Phones Are Nice Things in Ugly Packages

2009-01-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

Motorola is rolling out three new handsets that'll be available in the next few months. While the concepts are relatively up-to-date (eco-friendliness, military ruggedness, touchscreens), why did Motorola choose designs from 2002?

The Renew W233, a bright yellow candybar, is allegedly the first phone made from recycled water bottles. It also costs 20% less to manufacture, has a carbon neutral footprint, and a Motorola promise to invest in renewable energy programs. Great, except ugly phones are a tough sell to even the most dedicated of environmentalists.

The Tundra VA76r is a military-spec, rugged PTT clamshell. It comes with CrystalTalk Plus, which uses a second microphone to filter out and reduce background noise, as well as a 2MP camera, stereo Bluetooth, aGPS and support for a 4GB microSD card. I guess ruggedized phones aren't supposed to be the prettiest things, but seeing the same design rehash from last year is boring.

The Surf A3100 is a touch-based replacement for Motorola's Ming. It'll have a 2.8-inch display, quad-band GSM/EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and two cameras—a 3MP with autofocus and a secondary VGA for videophoning, as well as support up to 32GB microSD cards. The catch is, it's only coming to Asia. Motorola has spoken, and it's said the U.S. cain't have nuthin' nice.

Famous Tweeting Twitterers become hacker targets

2009-01-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

One would think celebrities lead fun, interesting and robust lives filled with exciting events, parties, and lots of things to do. In this particular case, however, the fun may have run out as hackers broadcast defaming messages, making Twitter's Tweeting untwustworthy.

Twitter is a social networking site allowing users to broadcast their life – a process called “Tweeting.” Each move broadcast utilizes a 140-character message that can be sent via a mobile device or the website interface.

In fact, the whole concept behind Twitter is just talking about yourself and broadcasting your life's every move. Therefore it’s not at all surprising that politicians and celebs feel the need to infiltrate the site, broadcasting their every move. This unfortunately also leaves them open to attack.

Tweeting has proven one thing, however, and that's just how boring a celeb's life can be. That changed yesterday, however, when a hacker decided to take control of some celebrity accounts and post obscenities, defaming their character in the process.

Some popular celebrity Tweeters are Stephen Fry, Britney Spears, Dave Matthews, Andy Murray, Shaq, Barrack Obama, Lance Armstrong and MC Hammer.

This weekend Twitter reported a password stealing/phishing scam on the web. Today, those following celebrity Twitterers might have noticed a few oddities. Britney Spears’ Twitter account was tweeting about her lady business, and the blog of CNN anchor Rick Sanchez displayed the tweet “I am high on crack right now might not be coming into work today”.

A message sent by hackers on Britney Spears' account.

Twitter posted on their official blog that the website was hacked and that the celebrity blogs of Rick Sanchez, Britney Spears and 31 other Twitter users had been affected by an actual person and not a phishing scam.

The accounts were compromised by someone who hacked into some of the tools utilized by the Twitter support team. Twitter is taking the security breach very seriously, and has removed the support tools from the Internet. The site claims it will go back to normal operation when its sure that everything is both safe and secure.

Apple demonstrates MacBook Wheel

2009-01-06T09:07:00.001-08:00

Keyboardless laptop

We’ve come across an interesting video where Apple demonstrated their latest invention – the MacBook Wheel, which is a super-thin laptop with no keyboard. That’s right, there’s no keyboard and it has just one giant touch-wheel instead.

Looks-wise, this device is classic Apple’s design – sleek, stylish and simple, and it definitely doesn’t lack in that department. It’s very thin and comes with an also thin battery which can power the device for 19 minutes.

Navigation seems quite straightforward and Apple will surely make it even easier with custom menus and such, but in my opinion, it’s the typing that’s the weakest link. Since this device looks like a giant iPod, you’ll have to use the wheel to scroll to the letter and tap the center in order to type it down – which is an agony.

On the other hand, a loyal Apple fan in the video says how he realized how much he hates the keyboard, and all that after typing a mail in “only” 45 minutes. I'm not a big fan of blind faith in companies, so all I'll say is - good luck with your chatting, mate.

This device should hit the market in anywhere from 3 to 15 months and the lowest-end model is priced at US$2.599.

JVC to showcase “super-thin” LCD at CES

2009-01-05T21:10:00.000-08:00

JVC said it has developed a thin and light LCD for upcoming 32” LCD TVs. The display will be shown at CES in Las Vegas later this week.

The new LCD is only 0.28” (7 mm) thick and weighs just 11 lbs, the company said. The device uses about 50% less material resources and about 10% fewer LCD module parts than current JVC 32” displays, but provides the same optical and heat-dissipation features. Following a current industry trend, the LCD uses power-efficient LEDs as light source.

A prototype of the new 1080p display will be at JVC’s booth at CES from January 7 – 10. The manufacturer did not say when the technology will be available for commercial products and how much such LCDs could cost.

However, the company said that it will use “this new technology to commercialize LCD solutions that enhance eco-friendly visual lifestyles” and that the compact size of the LCD “makes it possible to enhance visual environments in places where heavy displays are difficult to install, such as public spaces, amusement facilities, outlets, companies, schools and houses.”

Lenovo announces dual-screen Thinkpad

2009-01-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

Lenovo today announced the world’s first dual-screen notebook, which may give the idea of a mobile workstation or business desktop replacement notebook new meaning. The Thinkpad W700ds adds a slide-out display to the system’s main 17” screen to duplicate a desktop dual-screen environment. The privilege of owning one of these notebooks comes at a price – in terms of weight, battery life and money.

The Thinkpad team has had fantastic ideas to enhance the usability of its mobile computers in the past – we especially remember the Thinkpad’s butterfly keyboard in the mid-90s. But few of these ideas actually survived and we are not sure whether the dual-screen notebook approach has the potential to last.

Lenovo’s new Thinkpad is designed as a 17” mobile workstation that is 0.5” thicker than its W700 predecessor and hides a 10.6” slide-out display in its lid. The main screen offers a resolution of 1920 x 1200, the smaller screen (which can be angled towards the user) 768 x 1280, which is about 40% of the screen real estate of the main display. Realistically, the 768 pixel width is not enough to comfortably browse web pages or to edit text documents, presentations or large spreadsheets. In everyday use, the display may be limited to secondary applications such as instant messaging, video calls or emails.

Compared to the W700, which is already a substantial notebook, the ds version packs an additional 2 lbs and weighs about 11 lbs. Add the power adapter and you are at 13 lbs and even that may not be the final word, especially if you are adding a second or third hard drive. The measurements are 16.1”x12.2”x2.1”.

The core hardware components of the W700ds include Intel Core 2 processors (quad-core available), Nvidia workstation graphics (Quadro FX 3760M), 4 – 8 GB memory and a hard drive capacity of 320, 640 or 960 GB. Prices for a W700ds base model start at just under $3700, while a quad-core model with Nvidia’s workstation graphics chip will break the $5000 barrier. Add more memory and max out the storage space and you will see a bottom line that exceeds $6000.

There are plenty of reviews of the W700ds already available on the web and it appears that this system is not exactly as mobile as your average notebook. Not only is it bulky and heavy, its battery time is also well below two hours - if both screens are used. The battery times published in the reviews we have seen range from about 95 to 110 minutes with a standard 9-cell battery.

If you are looking for a notebook with more battery time and do not need the second screen, Lenovo is now offering what the company describes as “one of the thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptops.” The Ideapad Y650 is just 1” thick (at its thinnest point) and weighs about 5.6 lbs. The Y-series, which is also available with a 15.6” or a 14” screen, can be configured with up to 4 GB of DDR3 memory and up to 500 GB of hard drive space.

Freescale to launch cheap netbook CPU

2009-01-05T09:53:00.001-08:00

Freescale on Monday is expected to announce a new processor for netbooks that may challenge chip maker Intel on price in the low-cost computing space.

The company's i.MX515 processor will run on netbooks, low-cost laptops that are designed to perform basic computing functions like accessing the Internet and running productivity applications.

Intel dominates the netbook space with its Atom processors, which are found in netbooks priced around US$299. Freescale hopes to drive costs down even further by putting its processors in $199 netbooks. Netbooks have gained in popularity since Intel started shipping Atom last year, and Freescale wants a piece of the pie as shipments continue to grow.

Freescale will demonstrate an i.MX515-powered netbook with Wi-Fi wireless networking made by Pegatron, a spinoff of Asus, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas between Jan. 8-11. It wasn't immediately clear whether Pegatron would distribute netbooks with the Freescale processors.

In addition to lowering prices, Freescale hopes to improve battery life over Intel's Atom chips, said Glen Burchers, marketing director at Freescale's consumer division. Netbooks with Freescale processors will be able to run for around eight hours, according to the company. That level of performance would top the battery life of Atom-based netbooks.

The processor requires less power to run and doesn't need a heat sink or fan to cool as it is designed from a core used in communication devices like cell phones, Burchers said. The i.MX515 processor is based on the Cortex-A8 core from Arm, which can scale in performance up to 1GHz. It supports 3D graphics and can playback high-definition video.

Freescale hopes its processors will catch on with audiences like teenagers, who access the Internet intermittently for Web browsing and social networking.

"We believe the netbook is a device that is going to be primarily targeted at Internet access, that is a companion device to computers and to smartphones. It is not a replacement for either," Burchers said. Options to connect to the Internet, like Wi-Fi wireless networking, will be included in Freescale-based netbooks.

The chips will ship by the middle of this year, Burchers said. Some companies are considering using it in netbooks, though Burchers didn't provide any names. The netbooks could include screen sizes from 8.9 to 10 inches, and could reach buyers by the end of the year, he said.

The netbooks will support Linux, and Freescale is working with Canonical to develop a version of the OS for the Arm core. The devices won't support Windows, however.

But with users increasingly adopting Windows-based netbooks, will Freescale be missing out on a larger market for its processor? Netbooks with Intel-based chips enjoy the advantage of running programs people are familiar with, like Microsoft Office or Internet Explorer.

However, Linux can be effective in doing netbook-specific jobs like accessing social networks or running productivity applications, Burchers said. It's easy to get used to Firefox or OpenOffice.org, for example, which look the same in both Windows and Linux, he added.

Adobe and Intel stick Flash into TVs...

2009-01-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Adobe and Intel today announced plans to collaborate on the development to port and optimize Adobe Flash technology for the Intel Media Processor CE 3100. This effort is expected to provide consumers with richer and more seamless Web-based and video viewing experiences through advanced Intel-based cable set-top boxes, Blu-ray Disc players, digital TVs and retail connected AV devices.

The high-definition capabilities of the Adobe Flash Platform, together with the Intel Media Processor CE 3100, the first in a new family of purpose-built Intel System on Chips (SoCs) for CE devices, creates a powerful entertainment hub capable of delivering rich Web content and Adobe Flash based applications to an array of Internet-connected CE devices. Intel and Adobe are working together to optimize both the Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Flash Lite for the CE3100. Intel plans to ship the first CE3100 with support for an optimized implementation of Adobe Flash Lite before mid-2009.

The two companies are uniquely positioned to support consistent Internet content across PCs, laptops, netbooks, mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and now the TV, extending the shared business objectives of accelerating rich video and Internet content across the full breadth of consumer devices.

"The Intel Media Processor CE 3100 is a highly integrated solution that provides a powerful, yet flexible technology foundation that will bring to life the high-definition capabilities of Adobe Flash," said William O. Leszinske Jr., general manager of Intel's Digital Home Group. "Our effort with Adobe is poised to accelerate a rich, yet relevant Internet experience on the TV that will provide consumers with access to a growing number of Flash based applications that will ultimately be enjoyed across a number of screens seamlessly, from the laptop to a MID and now the TV."

Intel and Adobe have a long history of technical collaboration, including, most recently, being founding members of the Open Screen Project. Announced in May 2008, the Open Screen Project is designed to enable a consistent runtime environment across screens. The initiative has 20 major industry partners and is dedicated to enable Web content, standalone applications and full Web browsing across televisions, set-top boxes, mobile devices and other consumer electronics that take advantage of Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash capabilities.

"The Open Screen Project is striving to remove barriers for developers and designers as they look to publish content and applications across desktops and devices" said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "The Intel Media Processor CE 3100 provides a powerful platform capable of delivering outstanding Flash experiences to millions of homes as a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes makes its way into the living room."

Adobe and Intel are also working together to bring an optimized implementation of Adobe AIR technology to Intel's digital home platform in the future.

Nvidia's 40nm GT212 to have 384 SPs, 96 TMUs

2009-01-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Half-step between GT200b and GT300

According to a recent report from Hardware-Infos, the specifications of Nvidia's coming flagship 40nm GT212 architecture have been identified and revealed from unnamed sources near Nvidia, as usual. To start matters off, GT212 is the successor to 55nm GT200b which is currently rolling into production. In comparison, the upcoming architecture is essentially following two similar footsteps of 65nm G92 last March - a die shrink to a smaller fabrication process and a decrease in memory interface width.

The memory interface of GT212 will decrease from 512-bit on GT200 to 256-bit, which is quite similar to what occurred with AMD's RV770. To compensate, however, Nvidia will follow suit by incorporating Hynix 7Gbps GDDR5 into its GT212 as well as into the rest of its 40nm lineup. In addition, the stream processor count of GT212 will increase from 240 in GT200 to 384, and the number of texture mapping units will increase from 80 to 96.

As Nvidia's second-generation unified shader architecture, GT200 features 10 texture/processor clusters. According to analysis, if GT212 follows this structure, it will feature 16 texture/processor clusters and is likely to adopt a third-generation unified shader architecture with 4 shader models and 8 texture mapping units, thus bringing the total shader count to 384 as stated. In layman's terms, the total stream processor count of GT212 will increase by 60% and the texture mapping units will increase by 20%.

Because of the sharp increase in stream processors, the number of transistors will jump to nearly 1.8 billion, a great 400 million more than GT200. The new die surface will be just under 300mm² which should significantly reduce manufacturing costs for Nvidia when the company needs it most. All in all, the complexity of the new architecture will be less than a fifth more than GT200 due to lower PCB complexity needed as a result of the lowered memory interface.

The new architecture is confirmed to launch in Q2, most likely around April or May, although the latter statement has not been confirmed.

Macworld 2009: Apple's iWork and iLife as cloud services?

2009-01-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

According to online reports, Apple will unveil cloud-based versions of iWork and iLife at Macworld Expo, which is scheduled to open its doors on January 5. Reports claim that all office productivity applications from the iWork bundle will receive a cloud makeover and one high-profile Mac blogger claims that iMovie, iLife's application for editing home movies, will become a cloud service well. Of course, it is a rumor at this time, but cloud-based iWork and iLife applications would be significant updates that could expand the market reach of these Mac-only applications to virtually any platform, including Windows PCs.

Anyone who has been following the Mac software scene knows that iLife and iWork updates are long overdue since Apple last updated the two application bundles 18 months ago. The unusual silence gives certain weight to claims that Apple's software team put desktop updates on hold to focus on Web versions of the software. Computerworld blogger Seth Weintraub first floated the iWork cloud rumor, citing multiple "reliable sources." Weintraub recently addedanother rumor about a Web-based version of iMovie. Described as "Internet video in the Cloud for the YouTube generation," the service is expected to deliver the ability to "upload your movies to us and edit them there."

According to other online reports, the cloud-based iWork and iMovie are based on an open-source JavaScript framework used to create platform independent web applications: SproutCore powers MobileMe, but cloud versions of iWork and iMovie might showcase the kind of desktop-class experience, a rich user interface and advanced multimedia features that SproutCore can deliver. Although online spreadsheet, presentation and word processing web applications like Google Docs and ZoHo Office have been around for a while, the new iWork may push the envelope a bit further.
It unclear at this point whether a cloud-based iWork will just be an online extension of the desktop iWork version or if desktop version will cease to exist in favor of the web-only version. If Apple's software team in fact has spent the past 18 months re-writing iWork and iMovie in SproutCore, there is a clear indication that the company has a much broader online strategy in place.

Common sense suggests that a web-based iWork will be positioned expand the market reach of the application bundle outside Mac's 5% global share to include the remaining 95% of Windows- and Linux-based machines. There may be a free version with basic features and a paid version that brings premium features like secure, more spacious online storage, backups, advanced editing options, etc. So far, iLife and iWork have been unique selling points for Mac hardware and were even featured in Apple’s Mac vs. PC commercials. But it is generally believed that we are finally entering a stage where hardware will be less important and less profitable and income streams will shift to software and services. If Apple is moving into this direction, it would certainly make sense to expand the reach of its applications, offer some functionality free of charge and offer premium features for an annual fee. However, some market watchers believe that Apple is taking a risky move by sacrificing Mac exclusivity of iWork, and especially iLife. The company currently sells iWork for $79.

The MobileMe suite of paid online services introduced last July marked Apple's ambitious foray into the world of Web 2.0. Unfortunately, Apple overestimated its capabilities as MobileMe has been hit with service outages from day one, followed by subsequent service blackouts and numerous bugs. In the months that followed, Apple repaired critical parts of the service, but failed to bring all advertised features by the end of 2008, as Steve Jobs had promised. Despite the blunder, we are told that Apple's ambitious cloud an online plans will exceed general expectations. There are even rumors about an Apple-branded search engine.

Pictures: Sony Ericsson C510 ( Kate )

2009-01-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

Here are some high quality pictures on the Sony Ericsson C510 aka Kate, the successor of the Sony Ericsson K770. The phone will be shipped in feb 2009.

Specifications:

3.2 MP AF camera and LED
Face detection
Smile shutter
Auto rotation when viewing
Cyber-shot™ UI 2.0
3.2 MP AF camera
Active lens cover
2.2” QVGA display
QVGA video
Picture light
160 MB in-built memory
Dedicated shutter key
Illuminated imaging shortcut keys
Face detection, Photo fix
Direct blog short cut key
Smile shutter
Illumination by different theme/mode
Print service Snapfish
Blue illuminated imaging short cuts
Download and upload to YouTube

IE market share drops under 70 percent

2009-01-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Firefox Share Tops 20% for November

For the first time since we began tracking, the Firefox browser has exceeded 20% share for a full month. Mozilla's CEO, John Lilly, gives credit to the Mozilla community and shared his thoughts with us on this accomplishment:

"Reaching 20 percent worldwide market share is a significant milestone for Firefox and Mozilla. It's a huge achievement by the global Mozilla community, one that just a few years ago most would have considered impossible. The open web is more vibrant than ever, and the thousands of Mozilla contributors around the world have played a major role in making it that way."

Firefox share jumped about eight tenths of a percent in November, which is much higher than average. Why the big jump? In addition to the steady gains Firefox has shown over the years, our analysis shows four other major reasons:

First, the U.S. election. Firefox usage share increased significantly in the days surrounding November 4th (especially in some non-U.S. countries, like Japan), then held roughly steady until:
Second, the Thanksgiving holiday. Firefox share jumped starting on Wednesday the 26th until the end of the month.
Third, extra weekend days. The average 30-day month has 8.57 weekend days. November had 10.
Fourth, higher unemployment. With an increase in unemployment, a higher than typical percentage of people are browsing from home than the office

All four reasons increase Firefox share since Firefox has a much larger residential share than corporate share (to be detailed in a future analysis). So, all the above factors led to increased residential browsing and a higher Firefox share.

Even considering these factors, Firefox's share trend is pointing to above 20% share for December and beyond.

Google tells users to drop IE6

2008-12-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

Taking a page out of Apple’s book, Google is now urging Gmail users to drop Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) in favor of Firefox or Chrome that, according to the company, run the popular web-based email service "twice as fast." Google also labels IE6 as an unsupported browser, meaning it fails to run some Gmail features.

Following recent release of Chrome 1.0, Google is increasing the visibility of the browser. In addition to a direct download link on Google.com, YouTube and within the Adsense advertising program, the company is now advising Gmail users who access the service with IE6 to ditch the browser and upgrade to Firefox 3 or Chrome. Google claims the two browsers run the popular webmail service "twice as fast".

IE6 users are greeted with a new "Get faster Gmail" message in the menu bar of the web interface. The link leads to a page that promotes Chrome and Firefox 3. "Browsers are getting faster and better at running web applications like Google Mail that use browser technology to its limits," the page reads. "In order to get the best experience possible and make Google Mail run an average of twice as fast, we suggest that you upgrade your browser to one of the fastest Google Mail supported browsers that work on Windows." The page offers direct download links for Firefox 3 and Chrome. IE7 and Apple's Safari are listed as supported Gmail browsers.

Google recently dumped Firefox in the Google Pack application bundle and replaced it with Chrome. Last month, the company added a direct download link for Chrome on Google and YouTube. Google's decision to list IE6 as an unsupported Gmail browser does not affect just consumers: Tens of thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses that run Google Apps hosted services may dump IE6 as well in order to get full Gmail-based features while accessing business email accounts via a web browser.

According to Net Applications, roughly one in five online users accessed the web with IE6 during November. Most of them are believed to be corporate users who rely on IE6 as the certified browser for their business environment. IE6’s market share is notably higher during the week than on weeks, we previously reported. However, there is a trend that shows a slowly, but steadily declining market share of IE6, which suggests that more businesses are switching to newer browsers. What makes Google’s Chrome promotion especially interesting is the fact that Mozilla is picking up two out of three browser users that Microsoft surrenders.

Fast JavaScript engines and greater compatibility with web standards have become Chrome's and Firefox's biggest selling points over IE this year. In the corporate world, these benefits could turn into decisive reasons for companies to ditch IE. Some business software vendors have begun tweaking their web applications for Chrome's speedy V8 engine, resulting in a dramatic speed gains. For example, a Chrome-optimized version of the Recruiting CRM software delivers a 300% performance increase in complex queries.

8 megapixel Samsung S8300 touch slider makes an appearance

2008-12-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

As it seems Samsung have a really nice cameraphone in store for all of us, due in the beginning of 2009. The S8300 has obviously slipped under someone's door, as it's not officially announced yet.

Only 12.8mm thick, the Samsung S8300 has an absolutely massive widescreen OLED display, probably the largest one we've seen to date, and the fact that it's a touchscreen, makes it that much sweeter.

The S8300 specs sheet is further pumped up by an 8 megapixel camera with auto focus, a GPS receiver, HSDPA and DivX video support. Judging from the interface shots, the handset doesn't seem to be a smartphone, but instead is running on the Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz feature phone interface, well known from the Samsung Pixon for example.

Upcoming Samsung S8300 looks nice

Among its other niceties are FM radio with RDS, Bluetooth 2.1, and a microSD card slot. It's a long list.

Unfortunately, as it's evident from the photos the 8 megapixel camera is not equipped with a xenon flash. There's only LED instead that's best used as video light. There's no mention of Wi-Fi functionality either.

Samsung S8300

As you may guess, there is no official info about the device yet, however word is out that it should be available by March 2009.

LG announces dual SIM KS660 and 3G wristwatch GD910

2008-12-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

The new touchscreen based LG KS660 supports two SIM cards simultaneously, while the extravagant GD910 mobile phone takes the shape of a wristwatch and shines with 3G support for video calls.

LG KS660 is a dual-SIM phone supporting tri-band GSM connectivity. It has a 3-inch TFT touchscreen display with WQVGA resolution (400x240), 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording at 720x480@15fps. Additional specs include 50MB internal storage, microSD expansion slot (up to 4GB), Bluetooth and USB capabilities.

LG KS660

The unfortunate absentees are 3G and Wi-Fi. The first LG handset featuring two SIM cards will likely aim at the Asian and Eastern European markets, much like the Dual SIM lineup by Samsung.

The second mobile phone is LG GD910 and it comes in the unusual wristwatch form factor. Perhaps you remember the wristwatch prototype by LG that was displayed at the MWC 2008. Well, they've made it real this time and it would be first showcased at the CES 2009 next month.

LG GD910 is 13.9 mm thick and sports a 1.43-inch touch LCD screen. The main selling point of the device is 3G video calls thanks to the front-facing camera.

LG GD910

Anyway, behind the watch disguise you will also find HSDPA and Bluetooth connectivity, voice dialing and speech recognition, text-to-speech feature and a music player.

Currently, we don't have any information about pricing or availability of either device.

Apple iPad launching in 2009?

2008-12-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

New year, new Apple rumour

A tablet-style device from Apple has been rumoured for years. In fact, it's been rumoured so long, someone else ended up making and selling one. But 2009 could finally see a fully legit Apple tablet, dubbed the iPad.

Yes, we're in the land of rumour and hearsay once more, although TechCrunch claims 'three independent sources close to Apple' have confirmed details of a prototype device to them. And from what they're saying, it's likely to be a large-sized iPod touch with 7-inch or 9-inch screen, mixing access to the iTunes app store with iTunes and a Safari web browser. They also add that prototypes have been 'handled' by those sources, with Apple now in discussions in Asia about mass production.

We'll file this under 'believe it when we see it' for now, but it could make commercial sense, especially with a proposed launch in time for Christmas 2009.

30GB Zunes Failing Everywhere, All At Once

2008-12-31T11:46:00.000-08:00

Right, so this is a weird one: we're getting tons of reports—tons—about failing Zune 30s. Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless.

The crisis has been dubbed by Zune users 'Z2K9', due to the apparently synchronized faceplantings across the country. According to tipster Michael, the Zune users experienced something like this:

Apparently, around 2:00 AM today, the Zune models either reset, or were already off. Upon when turning on, the thing loads up and... freezes with a full loading bar (as pictured above). I thought my brother was the only one with it, but then it happened to my Zune. Then I checked out the forums and it seems everyone with a 30GB HDD model has had this happen to them.

What hasn't emerged yet, largely due to the fact that MS's support lines aren't yet open for the day, is why these devices are failing. The evidence seems to point to a software glitch, but simple resets aren't providing any relief. Some reports indicate that only Zunes with the latest firmware are affected, but this hasn't yet been confirmed.

The proximity of the events to the New Year, which inspired the Y2K9 moniker, provides little more than a colorful backdrop; it's unlikely that the switching of years in the Zune's internal calendar has anything to do with the failures (besides, it hasn't even happened yet).

If not for the uniform representation of events across the internet, I'd be tempted to suspect this as a hoax, but it just doesn't look that way. The story, assuming the described problem is of the magnitude reported, will probably take a turn for the large when the majority of Zuners start waking up.

Update: We've got a DIY fix to revive slain Zunes.

Update: Reader Bill Bradski (Bill Brasky?) has summed up the situation thusly:

Update 2: Here's Microsoft's official response for the time being (it's clear they just woke up and probably haven't even flipped on their coffee pots yet):

We are aware that customers with the Zune 30GB are experiencing issues with their Zune device. We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it. We will keep customers informed on next steps via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

Flash growth to slow, SSDs not selling as well as expected

2008-12-31T11:41:00.000-08:00

DRAMeXchange has revised its Flash bit growth forecast once again, from 108.2% in September to only 81%, which is less than half the growth rate the sector posted just two years ago. The market research firm said that the new number reflects a declining demand of consumer electronics.

NAND flash manufacturers are already in trouble and it seems that 2009 will only get worse. The new bit growth expectation is still high at 81%, but behind the 175% in 2006, 151% in 2007 and 121% in this year. And while the absolute number of bit growth will be stronger next year than it was in 2008, the greater capacity of flash chips indicates that actual shipments of flash devices may not grow at all are even decline.

According to DRAMeXchange, about 28.2 billion 1 Gb flash units were shipped during 2008, up from 12.7 billion in 2007. The 2009 forecast estimates shipments at 52.0 billion 1 Gb units – translating to an 81% bit growth rate. However, due to increased competitive pressure, flash storage capacity is generally expected to at least double next year, which could mean that actual chip shipments may decline.

The primary reasons for this scenario is the cellphone industry which is expected to post decline in shipments for 2008. Demand for digital cameras, MP3 players and USB memory sticks is still on the rise, but has slowed as well, according to DRAMeXchange. Most interestingly, the market research firm found that solid state disk drives are not selling as well as anticipated: “The short term demand mainly comes from the industrial market and the outcome in the low cost PC market is actually lower than expected, which was due to price and reliability issues,” the company said.

Most notebook makers PC still are still focused on the traditional hard drive as its major storage device. “The penetration rate of SSD in the low cost PC market will be lower than 10% in 2009,” DRAMeXchange stated.

There is still an oversupply of flash memory in the market, which will cause manufacturers to reduce their wafer production by about 10% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2009. According to DRAMeXchange, flash companies will also adjust their product mix, lowering the unprofitable portion of the NAND flash related production and shifting to more profitable devices such as SSDs.

Apple working on large-screen iPod Touch

2008-12-31T11:36:00.000-08:00

Cease my fluttering heart

Expensive toymaker Apple is expected to release an iPod Touch device with a 7 to 9-inch screen in the autumn of 2009.

TechCrunch claims to have actually handled one of the prototypes so it is pretty sure what Jobs' Mob is up too. Apparently Apple is talking with manufacturers in Asia about mass production of the gear.

Apple has been rumoured to be making a tablet device for years. However it correctly guessed that no one in the market was interested.

Recently Apple patented something that was very much like a Mac tablet, which appears to bring a lot of the iPhone's multitouch functionality to a slate-like tablet computer.

Tablet PCs haven't sold very well, but Apple' cult Messiah Steve Jobs implied Apple was watching small-device categories like tablets and Netbooks to see if they actually take off.

iPhone, yours for only $99

2008-12-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

The $99 iPhone is an Internet rumor that simply won’t go away. At this time, you still have to pay $199 for your iPhone 3G and there is the hope that as competitive pressure on Apple increases, there may be a $99 iPhone in the future. But if you really want an iPhone today and want to spend just $99, there is now an opportunity. And yes, there is a catch.

The most recent $99 iPhone rumor suggested that a special-run 4 GB iPhone 3G that was meant to be exclusively offered through Wal-Mart retail stores, a move that most analysts believe would grow Apple's share of the smartphone market significantly. When Walmart launched its iPhone 3G promotion yesterday, there was no $99 iPhone, but simply the regular 8 GB and 16 GB iPhone, both offered with a discount of $2. The retail chain said it would match rival's advertised iPhone prices - Best Buy is carrying 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3G for $190 and $290, respectively.

Common sense tells us that it really does not matter whether the phone is priced at $197, $190 or $200, since you will spend at least ten times that over the 2-year contract period of the phone. Even a $100 discount may be just cosmetics in that perspective, but if you feel that a $100 discount is a good deal, here’s your chance. AT&T offers refurbished $99 iPhone 3Gs in a limited time offer that ends December 31, while supplies last.

According to AT&T's website, refurbished phones are "previously owned devices that have been unused or lightly used and returned during the 30-day trial period." AT&T assures prospective buyers that each refurbished phone is "independently quality tested and loaded with the latest software to meet current factory standards." The catch? AT&T but concedes that some refurbished iPhone 3G devices will have "minor scratches." There is a 90-day warranty included, but buyers will have to sign up for a 2-year service contract for at least $70 per month (not including text messaging and taxes/fees.)

The fact that there is a $99 iPhone 3G after all had some Apple watchers jumping to the conclusion that AT&T is clearing its inventory in anticipation of new iPhone models allegedly scheduled for a Macworld January 2009 introduction. AT&T’s announcement, however, is no indication of a new iPhone. Apple has been carrying refurbished iPods, Macs and other products for years but only vigilant buyers are aware of the refurbished section that Apple mentioned in its the low-key Special Deals section of its online store. While some refurbished Apple products offer just $200 in savings (Macbook and MacBook Air), more expensive gadgets carry deeper price cuts, like the refurbished 17” MacBook Pro that is discounted by $700.

Our take on the $99 iPhone? If you are a frequent reader, you know our opinion. Smartphones, not just the iPhone, are expensive gadgets and cash cows for cellphone companies. If you are interested in the $99 iPhone 3G simply because you are “cheap” and you don’t care about a scratch or two, it might be a good deal. But if you are interested simply because the lower price tag puts the iPhone 3G within your reach, you have to be realistic and admit that you can’t afford such a phone anyway. You are likely to spend close to $100 (including taxes and fees) or more on the service plan over the next two years (and beyond that if you intend to keep the phone), so a $100 upfront discount should not matter anyway.