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Flexible Work Solutions (FWS) Modeler

2011-06-23T01:40:00.001-07:00

Zinnov LLC, a leading Management Consulting Firm recently launched its proprietary Web-based Flexible Work Solutions (FWS) Modeler.

The Web-based FWS Modeler provides its subscribers the ability to continuously monitor and model the cost/benefit analysis of various types of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) across multiple scenarios.The modeler is built on intelligent algorithms that combine both Client Specific Data and FWA Research conducted by Zinnov to ensure customization of savings.The Modeler also provides ability to quantify the impact of Flexible Work Arrangements on qualitative parameters such as Business Continuity and Diversity.

The modeler has been released as a part of Zinnov’s comprehensive Flexible Work Solution offering. This solution helps companies conduct due diligence on FWA, build a strong business case on it, measure and improve its impact on the organization, employees, environment and society.
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Sony Unveils Another World First

2011-06-23T01:39:00.007-07:00

Sony today announced its first worldwide creative campaign for Sony BRAVIA(R) televisions. The company built the BRAVIA-drome, the centerpiece for Sony's latest marketing campaign, to provide customers with a visual demonstration of Sony's Motionflow technology.

The BRAVIA-drome was inspired by the zoetrope, a device invented in the 19th century to create short 'films' from a series of static images. This modern day zoetrope is 10 meters across, spins at over 40 kph and is the optimal medium for demonstrating how Motionflow 240Hz technology clearly displays today's fast-action motion pictures.

Sony selected soccer for its continuous movement to fully demonstrate the clarity of Motionflow 240Hz for customers. The technology effortlessly eliminates jerkiness and smoothes the flight of the ball as it hits the net, making fans that are watching the game within the comfort of their own homes feel as though they are at the stadium.

The commercial is filming in a square in Venaria, near Turin, and stars FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or holder, Brazilian soccer sensation Kaka. The FIFA World Cup winner will appear in a series of images inside the BRAVIA-drome performing some of his legendary skills. To add to the excitement, soccer juggling champion Dan Magness will make an appearance at the shoot as he attempts to smash three Guinness World Records. Magness, already known for breaking several different soccer records, has trained some of the very best players in the world - from Francesco Totti to Michael Owen - in the art of controlling a soccer ball.

Microsoft Brings Holiday Cheer on a Budget

2011-06-23T01:39:00.005-07:00

As part of Microsoft Corp’s continued efforts to promote computer literacy among U.S. Hispanics and in light of the upcoming holiday season, Microsoft has joined the Los Angeles-based Boyle Heights Technology Youth Center (BHTYC), whose mission is devoted to enhancing opportunities for future Latino leaders and encouraging parental involvement, to host a special holiday workshop for the Hispanic community. The workshop will teach parents and children how to save money and prepare for the holidays using Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and the Microsoft Office 2007 Language Pack — Spanish.

The Microsoft Office Home and Student suite of applications includes Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Office Word 2007, Office OneNote 2007 and Office PowerPoint 2007. All Office 2007 suites are available in two versions: English (bilingual families can add the Office 2007 Language Pack — Spanish as a tool to switch back and forth between languages) and Spanish (for Spanish-dominant users, this version comes completely in Spanish).

As the holiday season draws near, Microsoft is organizing a posada-style family celebration at the BHTYC. The event is slated for Saturday, Dec. 6, and will gather more than 100 Hispanic families. Attendees will learn about the Microsoft Office 2007 system and the Office 2007 Language Pack — Spanish in a fun environment, using technology solutions including Office Excel 2007, Office Word 2007 and Office PowerPoint 2007 to prepare for the holidays.

The GeForce GTX 260 55 nm revealed

2011-06-23T01:39:00.003-07:00

Expreview put the hands on two new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260. It is therefore GT200B developments GT200A of 55 nm (which was burned to recall 65-nm). It still has 216 SP (Stream Processors) and its frequency would remain the same. The PCB of the card, 26.5 cm long from 14 to 10 layers.

The food is reviewed, the card now has 4 + 2 phases, against 3 + 2 before. The developments allow a more simple and less expensive. The problems identified by some noise should also disappear. The two PCI Express 6-pins allow the card to consume up to 225 W (75 W on the PCIe x16 slot and 2 x 75 W on the connectors). Some believe that if the card consumes less than 150W (overclocking off) it would be possible to use one of the two connectors.

Security : 98% of Windows PCs

2011-06-23T01:39:00.001-07:00

During the launch of version 1.0 of its free Personal Software Inspector, which checks the status of security updates programs using a Windows computer, Secunia focused on information lift over 20 000 users.

Released on November 25, the product has already been downloaded 120 000 times. "If the results are not biased, we rejected those users who had already tested PSI beta," says on his blog a spokesman for society. The data were transmitted before PSI, which also helps users to install the necessary updates, does his work.

The reality is probably worse

The results of the study are cold in the back. It shows that only 1.91% of machines analyzed contain no software "vulnerable" (as they were properly "patched" by their owners). 30.2% of computers have between one and five unsecured, 25% of six to ten programs in the same case, and 45% more than eleven software vulnerable.

According to Secunia, the situation has worsened. Earlier this year, figures released showed that the machines' healthy 'was 4.5%. PCs with more than eleven software unsecure represented them, 41.9% of the total.
Incidentally, Secunia says that the reality is probably worse, because users of PSI are by definition a population already sensitive to issues of security.

Dell Charges More For Windows XP

2011-06-23T01:38:00.007-07:00

Dell is making Windows XP available to certain home PCs again instead of clunky Vista, although you will need to fork out another $150 for an older operating system. Yes, it is the end of the world. If only second hand car dealers took the same approach, we'd be having much more energy efficient vehicles on the roads right now. The Inspiron 1525 laptop and 530 desktop are the beneficiary systems from this exercise, as Dell takes advantage of the downgrade loophole normally reserved for business users. Seems that Windows Vista has been proven to be unable to realize its full potential, and consumers just won't change for the sake of changing.

YouTube finally switches to full HD

2011-06-23T01:38:00.005-07:00

It looks like YouTube has finally gone the way of HD. Well, at least for videos uploaded in high definition it has. So now, as well as being able to see videos or trailers like the one above in high definition, you can now see people make complete pratts out of themselves in high definition too. As is demonstrated by the intentionally conspicuous arrow, you'll find a "Watch in HD" button to click on the bottom right hand corner sto switch between normal quality and HD. Now just so you know, the switch isn't to full 1080p HD. It's definitely higher quality - not full HD - but close at 720p resolution. The results are still incredible, especially when viewed in full screen - a mode I try and avoid in normal quality due to the horrible distortion.

Take a look for yourself here at the Duff (Hilary Duff) singing her heart out in 720p resolution, compared to a non high def version of Britney Spears comeback performance on the X Factor.

Acer Plans to Enter Smartphone Market

2011-06-23T01:38:00.003-07:00

Acer Group, the world’s third largest personal computer supplier, plans to enter the market of smartphones in Q1 2009, according to the company. The PC maker believes that smartphone business will enable the company’s further dynamic growth in the course of the next three to five years.

Acer plans to enter the smartphone business with own-bran model sometime in the first quarter of 2009 initially targeting Western European and Russian markets. According to a news-story at DigiTimes web-site, Acer is currently negotiating with telecom companies and retailers about distribution of its smartphones. If the discussions do not lead to favourable terms for Acer or its partners, the large-scale entry of the company to the new markets may only occur in the second half of 2009.

Specifications of the smartphone have not been revealed.

Smartphone sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region increased 14% year-on-year in Q3, 2008, according to Gartner market tracking company. The region saw Nokia’s share decline nearly 8% in the third quarter of 2008 but still maintaining its leading position and saw Apple gain the No. 2 spot with 15.6 % share, moving in front of HTC and RIM. That said, it may make sense for Acer to try entering the market, even though it may be tough for a new player to gain massive popularity without a huge advertising campaign aiming consumers, something which Apple had to deploy to get to the No. 2 spot in EMEA.

Sony announced the elimination of 8,000 jobs

2011-06-23T01:38:00.001-07:00

The "techno" are decidedly not spared by the crisis. In the process of restructuring to reduce costs and put an end to its activities, the Japanese group Sony announced Tuesday the forthcoming elimination of 8,000 jobs, or about 4% of its global workforce (roughly 160,000 employees). The Japanese giant hopes to be able to achieve up to 1.1 billion dollars in savings per year.

Victim of the decline of the yen against other currencies and increased competition in its markets of choice in the field of electronics (televisions, stereos or game consoles in particular), Sony had already suggested in October that forecasts were now well below expectations, and should proceed quickly to the closure of some production sites.

The group said Tuesday that it plans to close about 10% of the 57 plants it supplies in the world, without specifying which would be affected. He however confirmed that the production site of French PONTONX-sur-Adour (near Dax in the Landes), hitherto vested in the manufacture of tapes (VHS) and the digitization of archives, would soon be closed.

In parallel, Sony states have revised downwards by about 30% its outlook for investment by 31 March 2010, and undertake to outsource part of the activities it intends to develop internally.

AMD revises participation in The Foundry Company

2011-06-23T01:37:00.007-07:00

"Drops to just over 34% of the share capital of AMD planned in The Foundry Company, an accomplice devaluation of its factories in Dresden"

The changes, now daily, linked to the international financial crisis led international AMD and Mubadala to partially revise their plans to create a new company, currently listed under the name of The Foundry Company, specializes in the production of chips.

In the month of November AMD announced the first operational plans related to its strategy "asset light" means that part of the production, made by factories in Dresden and the rights to build a new factory in the state of New York, would be fed in a new company, in partnership with Mubadala.

If AMD was to initially hold 44.4% of the share capital of the new company, The Foundry Company, the changing global economic conditions have led to a reduction in the value of assets that will bring AMD as participation. The consequence is a reduction to 34.2% of the company of AMD. Underlying this change reduced the estimated value for the assets from AMD, with a multiplier resulted from these reported earlier to 0.85 x 1.1 x compared to net value added in the budget.

Arun Sarin Ex-Vodafone CEO

2011-06-23T01:37:00.005-07:00

The former chief executive of Vodafone Group is one of the candidates being considered as Yahoo Inc. narrows its search for a new chief executive, according to a reports on Monday.

Quoting people familiar with the situation, the daily said the board of directors of Yahoo are searching for a new chief executive and have checked few references and a decision is likely to be taken in a few weeks.

"Among those being considered is Arun Sarin, who retired as chief executive of Vodafone Group PLC in July, according to people familiar with the matter," the WSJ said.

Sarin fits the basic criteria Yahoo's board is looking for in a chief exec, including experience heading a public company. He is viewed as someone who cut costs and helped turn Vodafone around. But he also invited his share of criticism from shareholders who felt he was moving too slow into emerging markets as a way of balancing Vodafone's heavy focus on the sluggish European market. Still, Sarin was able to fend off efforts to push him out of the top job two years ago. The ability to handle that kind of corporate intrigue is probably another reason his name was brought up. But at the end of the day, Yahoo's pool of potential chief executives is hardly small, even as a big name like News Corp president/chief operating officer Peter Chernin was said to have no interest.

Google Adds Task Manager to Gmail

2011-06-23T01:37:00.003-07:00

A new feature has just made its appearance in Gmail Labs, the testing laboratory webmail Google. Announced through the official Gmail blog, the Tasks function allows you to manage tasks and create small reminders in the webmail.

Tasks function is activated through the Labs section, accessible from the English version of Gmail. Once activated, a list taking place in a window similar to the chat can now be displayed in the lower right, a single click to create a new task. Options can create different lists, organize and prioritize tasks or to add their notes and a due date. It is also possible to create a task directly from an email, using the menu "More Actions".

With this new feature, Gmail, Google Calendar combined into a PIM (Personal Information Manager) and complete free online. Google nevertheless recalls that the proposed functions through its Labs, as they are being tested and may change, not work or be abandoned at any time. Tasks function has also great potential to become a standard feature.

VIA Announced the New ARTiGO A2000

2011-06-23T01:37:00.001-07:00

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA ARTiGO A2000 barebone storage mini-server. The perfect balance of size and space, the ARTiGO A2000 packs terabytes of storage capacity within a stylish, compact, low power and low noise system.

Today’s users are seeing their PCs filling up with gigabytes and even terabytes of locally stored media, and the proliferation of home DVD projects and high definition video downloads means file sizes are on the rise. The VIA ARTiGO A2000 consumes far less power and space than a regular desktop, yet provides ample storage for large home media libraries of music, photos and HD video. It can also serve as a headless Network Attached Storage box or media storage and streaming device in home server applications.

The same height as a CD and just 26cm (10.2”) long, the VIA ARTiGO A2000 can store up to three terabytes of data – the equivalent of around 4,500 CDs – with hard drives available today, all in a remarkably small footprint. Easy to assemble, the ARTiGO A2000 has two sturdy drive bays allowing for the simple snap-in of full-sized desktop hard drives.

“The VIA ARTiGO A2000 proves that small can be not only beautiful, but also substantial when it comes to storage capacity,” said Jerry Yuan, VIA Embedded Business Development Manager. “Building on the success of the ARTiGO A1000 Pico-ITX builder kit, VIA has once again broken the mould for barebones, creating a device that embodies VIA’s reputation for innovation and creativity in small spaces.”

Immaculate group to launch mobiles in India

2011-06-23T01:36:00.007-07:00

Mobile phones today aren't just communication devices -- they are radios, cameras, torches... anything you want them to be. And manufacturers are feeding the trend with new launches that focus on "user experience".

Immaculate group one of the fastest growing company. It has a great presence in UK by its telecom network and mobile handsets. Basically Immaculate group started selling their mobile in UK. It is now entering into Indian mobile market by launching its new range of handsets. India’s telecom market is one of the leading markets. More than 150 million subscriber’s or mobile users are in India. This condition is highly favorable for Immaculate mobile and in this market there is plethora of opportunities for Immaculate mobile. We are adhering to the needs of the people and are customizing our handsets to suit the Indian buyers. Immaculate has setup his own R&D in China & Hong Kong and now it is planning to come up with new range & varieties of hand sets.

Now your dreams will come true. If your dream is using a fully functional mobile in cheapest rate, then your waiting time is over. Immaculate is going to launch its good quality handsets in Indian market at a very cheapest price with central European certification to UK telecom companies. After covering the UK market now its coming in India to generate a low price mobile market. Immaculate would like to stand apart from various brands, which are already in market. It wants to make a separate place.

Immaculate Mobiles is going to bring revolution in industry of handsets. These handsets are designed for every common man. There are various designs. Immaculate phones can be viewed in part as fashion accessories. Substantial improvements in key functional areas (e.g. memory, battery life, data speed, processor speed) can be noticed by end-users. These handsets are having all features like, Camera, Bluetooth, MMS, Stereo FM Radio, Polyphonic, MP3 ring tones, Music Player, Video Player, Power full stand by battery etc.

'Super Resolution' upconverting technology

2011-06-23T01:36:00.005-07:00

Online video is experiencing tremendous growth including purchased or rented videos, advertisement-supported professional content and user-generated video (UGV). Most online videos today are low resolution and low quality, diminishing their entertainment value. In a bid to improve quality of both standard definition (SD) content (DVDs) as well as low resolution content, Broadcom plans to unveil its so-called “super resolution” upconverting technology.

At CES 2009, Broadcom will demonstrate super resolution technology for DTVs that solves the problem of upgrading low resolution Internet and SD video onto a large screen TV, such as high-definition HDTVs with 1920x1080 resolution. The technical benefits associated with this functionality include increased spatial resolution, additional fine detail, sharpened details with less blurriness and reduced artifacts such as jagged edges and flickering lines. The result is better quality Internet, online and SD video viewed on large screen TVs, thereby significantly improving the viewing experience.

In-Stat market research predicts that 94% of U.S. households with broadband access will watch online video by 2012 and 39% of U.S. adults will have either purchased or rented an online video.

Broadcom is not the first company to address the issue of upconverting low-resolution UGVs or SD DVDs in order to make them much more appealing on modern high-definition panels. Earlier this year Toshiba said that its new breed of DVD players featuring SpursEngine processors would be able to upscale standard-definition videos to “nearly” high-definition quality using technique that required extensive computing capabilities.

LG shows first LTE chip for 4G phones

2011-06-23T01:36:00.003-07:00

LG this morning said it has developed the world's first practical chip for 4G-grade cellular access using Long Term Evolution (LTE) as its standard. The 13mm square (0.51in) modem is small enough to fit in a cellphone but is capable of the theoretical peak speeds of LTE, which LG says tops out at 100Mbps downstream and at 50Mbps for uploads. A testbed Windows Mobile device has successfully reached bandwidth of 60Mbps down and 20Mbps up in a real-world example and should lead to slim cellphones with fast data performance, according to LG.

The speed is deemed a breakthrough and should result in phones with Internet performance rivaling better landline connections today. Assuming peak speeds, a 700MB video file would download in less than a minute; four 1080p HD movies could also stream simultaneously, the company says. Separately, LTE is also known to generate much lower latency than most existing forms of 3G and has been deemed more practical for two-way video calling and multiplayer online gaming.

Microsoft determines the decline in data retention

2011-06-23T01:36:00.001-07:00

Microsoft was willing to reduce to 6 months duration of retention of personal data, and adhering to the recommendations of the Working Party on data protection (also known as G29), published last April by the European equivalent of the CNIL ( National Commission on Information and Freedoms). The committee also anonymous data.

John Vassallo, Microsoft adviser for European affairs, has indicated that they would go up to six months when others do so, arguing with AFP that only 2% market share in Europe, the effects would be limited if they were the only ones to change their behavior.

These data, with particular habits and recurring Internet searches, allow indeed publishers of online services and search engines to improve results also friends (and especially) to target their advertising and attract advertisers . Google had made a start in September by lowering the shelf life of such data to 9 months, against 18 months earlier, explaining that they allow, among other things, to ensure the safety of users (by detecting the perpetrators phishing and other frauds, for example). Yahoo, so far silent on these European recommendations, meanwhile retain such data 13 months.

The Khronos Group Releases OpenCL 1.0 Specification

2011-06-23T01:35:00.003-07:00

The Khronos™ Group today announced the ratification and public release of the OpenCL™ 1.0 specification, the first open, royalty-free standard for cross-platform, parallel programming of modern processors found in personal computers, servers and handheld/embedded devices. OpenCL (Open Computing Language) greatly improves speed and responsiveness for a wide spectrum of applications in numerous market categories from gaming and entertainment to scientific and medical software. Proposed six months ago as a draft specification by Apple, OpenCL has been developed and ratified by industry-leading companies including 3DLABS, Activision Blizzard, AMD, Apple, ARM, Barco, Broadcom, Codeplay, Electronic Arts, Ericsson, Freescale, HI, IBM, Intel Corporation, Imagination Technologies, Kestrel Institute, Motorola, Movidia, Nokia, NVIDIA, QNX, RapidMind, Samsung, Seaweed, TAKUMI, Texas Instruments and Umeå University. The OpenCL 1.0 specification and more details are available at http://www.khronos.org/opencl/.

“The opportunity to effectively unlock the capabilities of new generations of programmable compute and graphics processors drove the unprecedented level of cooperation to refine the initial proposal from Apple into the ratified OpenCL 1.0 specification,” said Neil Trevett, chair of the OpenCL working group, president of the Khronos Group and vice president at NVIDIA. “As an open, cross-platform standard, OpenCL is a fundamental technology for next generation software development that will play a central role in the Khronos API ecosystem and we look forward to seeing implementations within the next year.”

Cascadia Labs Finds Norton Internet Security

2011-06-23T01:35:00.001-07:00

Symantec Corp. announced that Norton Internet Security 2009 received a perfect score and was named the top-rated product in a comprehensive analysis of protection in security suites conducted by third-party testing organization Cascadia Labs. Recently engineered with performance as a key focus, Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton AntiVirus 2009 also received top marks in overall performance in a comprehensive test conducted by PassMark Software, beating out competitors like Avira, ESET, Kaspersky, McAfee and Trend Micro.

“Today’s malware authors are moving much more quickly, developing new threats and deploying new techniques to infect computers. According to Symantec’s most recent Internet Security Threat Report, more than 700,000 new threats were detected in 2007, an increase of 468 percent,” said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Symantec. “Now, more than ever, it’s critical for computer users to protect themselves with a strong security solution, like Norton Internet Security, that doesn’t compromise performance and also protects against today’s threats more effectively than freeware and less advanced solutions.”

Cascadia Labs analyzed the effectiveness of popular consumer security products in protecting computers against web-based attacks. These threats, also known as drive-by downloads, often take advantage of vulnerabilities in a website to infect unsuspecting visitors’ computers simply by viewing the site. Norton Internet Security 2009 was evaluated against AVG Internet Security 8.0, Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, McAfee Internet Security 2009 and Trend Micro Internet Security 2009. In every measure of the test, Norton Internet Security 2009 performed flawlessly, blocking 100 percent of the exploits tested against it.

fastest growing technology companies

2011-06-20T09:36:00.001-07:00

Aspire Systems, India's leading Outsourced Product Development company, has announced that they have been ranked amongst the fastest growing technology companies in Asia under the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Award Program. The company has achieved this recognition for the third time in a row.

Gowri Shankar Subramanian, CEO, Aspire Systems, expressed his pleasure on winning the award and said, "Aspire Systems has always believed in providing the best of services to its clients. It is our focus on clients that has enabled us to deliver stellar growth in the Outsourced Product Development space". Gowri further added, "Our constant endeavor is towards building products better and faster for our clients. The innovation in our product development methodology differentiates us as an OPD player and we have been successful in leveraging this for our clients".

Music 2008: 40 billion illegal downloads

2011-06-20T09:32:00.001-07:00

The digital music business is booming but 95% of downloads are still illegal and not paid for, according to a new report.

Making money from digital music is "the biggest challenge for music companies" at the moment, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's (IFPI) Digital Music Report.

This was blamed on falling CD sales, while the increase in digital sales failed to make up for this.

The IFPI, which represents 1,400 companies in 72 countries, estimated more than 40 billion music files were illegally shared in 2008.

There were 1.4 billion single tracks legally downloaded in 2008, with the top-selling digital single, Lil Wayne's Lollipop, selling 9.1 million copies.

Digital music now accounts for 20% of recorded music sales, up from 15% in 2007.

But that success is overshadowed by the popularity of illegal downloading.
The IFPI estimates more than 40 billion music files were illegally shared in 2008. That compares with 1.4 billion legal single track downloads in 2008, with the top-selling digital single, Lil Wayne's Lollipop, selling 9.1 million units.
The UK saw one of the biggest increase in digital sales in the first half of 2008 with sales up by 45%. UK consumers downloaded 110 million single tracks in 2008 and 10.3 million digital albums were sold - accounting for 7.7% of the country's albums market.

Bharti Airtel launches Triple Play Service

2011-06-20T09:31:00.004-07:00

With this, Airtel delivers the Triple Play Advantage of Telephony, broadband and Entertainment Service to its customers.

The Triple Play Service will be initially available to customers in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida starting January 19, 2009.

On this occasion, Atul Bindal, President-Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel, said, "Today, with the launch of Airtel digital TV interactive, we begin offering the Triple Play Advantage offer to our customers - leading in with voice, then broadband and now television and video on demand. We offer our customers a Single Knock on The Door experience - a uniform Airtel Quality of Experience with a single Customer Service interface and a single unified bill for voice, broadband and TV and video entertainment."

Airtel's state-of-the-art IPTV Headend, with best-in-class MPEG4-10 compression technology, will allow it to offer more content and better quality images as well as services like live broadcast television, network based time-shifted TV, real video-on-demand and a host of other interactive services.

Airtel will deliver its IPTV service to customers through a fibre backbone of Carrier Ethernet Network with last mile delivery on copper using ADSL2+ technology. This latest technology enables high-speed broadband connectivity which in turn delivers superior digital video and audio quality.

New Google Search Feature: Preferred Sites

2011-06-20T09:31:00.003-07:00

Preferred Sites is a new experimental feature for Google Search that lets you personalize the results by adding a list of sites you want to appear more often when you search. Based on your search history, Google suggests some frequently-visited sites, but you can add any other site.

"The preferred sites feature lets you set your Google Web Search preferences so that your search results match your unique tastes and needs. Fill in the sites you rely on the most, and results from your preferred sites will show up more often when they're relevant to your search query."

Some use cases for the feature: adding sites you trust for finding a certain kind of information (movie reviews, sports results), adding more obscure sites that aren't likely to appear in the top results (local news sites) and a partial replacement for bookmarks.

Wikipedia Beefs Up for Multimedia

2011-06-20T09:31:00.001-07:00

Wikipedia is gearing up for an explosion in digital content with new servers and storage designed to handle larger photo and video uploads.multimedia, audio, videoVideo file sizes are quickly reaching the dozens and hundreds of megabytes, and the proliferation of high-megapixel cameras means even small photos can take up a few megabytes, says Brion Vibber, CTO at the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia. Until early 2008, the user-generated encyclopedia's primary media file server had just 2TB of total space, Vibber says.

"For a long time, we just did not have the capacity [to handle very large media files]," he says.wikipedia, multimediaWikipedia has since scaled up from 2TB to 24TB and now 48TB of storage for its primary medial file server, and recently raised file upload limits from 20MB to 100MB. The amount of storage actually being used is about 5TB but that will grow quickly, Vibber says.

For example, users are uploading public domain classical music, and some recordings can last a half-hour. Documentary films that are out of copyright are also being uploaded, and some users are struggling to keep files under the 100MB limit, according to Vibber.

Symantec Announces Enterprise Vault 8.0

2011-06-20T09:30:00.003-07:00

Symantec Corp. today announced the availability of Enterprise Vault 8.0, the newest version of the industry leading email and content archiving platform. Launching in conjunction with the 10-year anniversary of Enterprise Vault, version 8.0 provides customers with the most efficient intelligent archiving platform with more ways than ever to reduce the costs of storing unstructured information such as email, file server and SharePoint content.

Since 1999, Enterprise Vault has been adopted by more than 10,000 organizations globally and each year is recognized by leading analyst firms for its archiving and e-discovery leadership. Enterprise Vault 8.0 continues this tradition offering significant advancements to storage optimization, usability and electronic discovery saving customers up to 60 percent of the costs of storing unstructured information through its archiving technology.

News Facts

Industry-Leading Cost Savings: Enterprise Vault 8.0 offers advanced storage reduction using optimized single instance storage. The archive keeps just one copy of individual emails, their attachments, and files no matter how many times the information occurs and regardless of the originating application.
Accelerated e-Discovery: Leveraging the industry's first Guided Review feature as part of Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator, users are able to analyze and filter search results to quickly drill down to the most relevant content with a few simple clicks of the mouse, helping to further reduce the costs and risks of e-discovery.

sync service set for a February unveiling, New Windows

2011-06-20T09:30:00.001-07:00

It looks like Microsoft is finally ready to roll out the mobile version of Windows Live Mesh, it data syncing service that competes with Apple's MobileMe (which ran into problems at launch). Live Mesh was first announced last April, and currently only supports Windows PCs and a Webtop in the cloud. Mac and mobile versions are shown to be "coming soon."

Tom Warren at Neowin reports that Microsoft is set to launch a mobile syncing product called SkyBox at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. This builds on earlier reports based on job postings. SkyBox sounds exactly like Live Mesh (it syncs pictures, calendar, contacts, emails and text messages between your mobile phone and the cloud):

Hardware Configuration for the maximum

2011-06-20T09:29:00.005-07:00

The tool still lingers on the same components: the raw performance of processors, memory, graphics office for use on one hand and for use gourmande other as well as the hard disk are evaluated. Scores of Windows 7 now range from 1.0 to 7.9, not 1.0 to 5.9 as is the case with Windows Vista. The listing is in fact identical, the score may simply climbing 2 points in Windows 7 with the most powerful machines. Thus a machine obtaining a score of 4.2 on Vista will get roughly the same as Seven.

According to the recommendations of Microsoft, a gaming machine to score between 6.0 and 6.9 should be able to display 40 to 50 frames per second in 1280 x 1024 in most of the DirectX 10 games. Scores greater than or equal to 7.0 for their part can display video games more fluid and detailed and make editing high-definition video.

iGoogle discontinues optimization for iPhone

2011-06-20T09:29:00.003-07:00

Without warning, Google has quietly removed the iGoogle Web site formatted for the iPhone. The iPhone formatted version of iGoogle now redirects users to the generic Google Web site formatted for mobile devices. The version of the page that was unique to the iPhone, optimized for Mobile Safari and offered sections that were expandable or collapsible used to display custom gadgets.

Google so far appears to still be developing its Google application--voice searches, Google Earth app and we've previously seen enhancements to the iPhone Maps app (like Street View, walking directions, public transit, etc.) for the iPhone.

Technology Launches Stand-Alone Serial SRAM Devices

2011-06-20T09:29:00.001-07:00

Many embedded applications require volatile RAM for temporary data storage, or for use as a scratchpad, for bulk processing and for math algorithms. In many cases, this RAM is embedded within the microcontroller (MCU). In the past, the most viable way to add more RAM was to buy a larger MCU, which could add unnecessary feature overhead and increase design costs. The only alternative was to add large, parallel-access RAM devices that use up large numbers of I/O pins. Microchip's serial SRAM devices provide a simple, inexpensive way for designers to add more RAM to their application while keeping the same MCU, or even using a smaller one if replacing parallel external RAM with serial RAM. Additionally, the devices feature a bus speed of 20 MHz for fast access, and low operating and standby currents to help extend battery life. They are available in 8-pin packages but only use four MCU pins, compared with 16 to 24 pins for parallel RAM.

"Microchip is pleased to offer a high-performance, low-cost option for designers wanting to easily and inexpensively add more memory to their applications," said Randy Drwinga, vice president of Microchip's Memory Products Division. "These devices show our commitment to finding new, creative solutions that help our customers save time and money, while enabling them to enjoy high performance, including the immediate writes, infinite endurance and low power draw that these serial SRAM devices provide."

PSP Firmware Update 5.03

2011-06-20T09:28:00.007-07:00

The PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system software update may include security patches, new or revised settings and features and other items, which will change your current operating system. We encourage you to check this page from time to time for software updates and to always maintain your system to use the latest version of the system software. If you recently purchased a PSP-3000 series, congratulations! Please update your system software to the version shown on this web page, so that you can enjoy all of the features of the PSP-3000 series system.

An update to the PSP® system software was released on November 20, 2008. You can use this update to upgrade your system software to version 5.02.

Handheld Graphics and Multimedia Assets from AMD

2011-06-20T09:28:00.005-07:00

Qualcomm Incorporated and AMD today announced that Qualcomm has acquired certain graphics and multimedia technology assets, intellectual property and resources that were formerly the basis of AMD's handheld business. The acquisition enhances Qualcomm's multimedia capabilities, allowing Qualcomm to strengthen its leadership position in delivering more advanced products that redefine next-generation mobile user experiences.

"This acquisition of assets from AMD's handheld business brings us strong multimedia technologies, including graphics cores that we have been licensing for several years," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "Bringing this technology in-house creates even greater synergy as we seamlessly integrate the best-in-class multimedia performance AMD offers into our system-on-chip (SoC) products."

"With the sale of these handheld technology assets and resources to Qualcomm, we are better able to focus on our core business and leverage our unique position as a leader in both x86 computing and high-end graphics," said Robert J. Rivet, chief operations and administrative officer, chief financial officer of AMD. "We believe the talented AMD Handheld employees will be a great asset to Qualcomm."

activate the payload of the Conficker virus

2011-06-20T09:28:00.003-07:00

The worm is spreading through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without current security updates.

The malicious program - also known as Downadup or Kido - was first discovered in October 2008.

Although the spread of the worm appears to be levelling off, there are fears someone could easily take control of any and all of the 9.5m infected PCs.

Speaking to the BBC, F-Secure's chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen, said there was still a real risk to users.

"Total infections appear to be peaking. That said, a full count is hard, because we also don't know how many machines are being cleaned. But we estimate there are still more than 9m infected PCs world wide.

"It is scary thinking about how much control they [a hacker] could have over all these computers. They would have access to millions of machines with full administrator rights.

"But they haven't done that yet, maybe they're scared. That's good news. But there is also the scenario that someone else figures out how to activate this worm. That is a worrying prospect."

Intel on track with Processors featuring

2011-06-20T09:28:00.001-07:00

Despite some over-conservative expectations and reports, Intel Corp. is on track to release its central processing units (CPUs) with integrated graphics cores this year, the company said during its most recent conference call with financial analysts.

Answering the question from Hans Mosesmann – an analyst from Raymond James, a financial services holding company – Stacy Smith, chief financial officer of Intel, said that the code-named Havendale processor with integrated graphics core for desktop and mobile computers will be available "in the second half" of this year.

Intel's Havendale processor is a multi-chip module (MCM) in LGA1160 form-factor containing Nehalem micro-architecture-based dual-core CPU in addition to graphics and memory controller hub (GMCH) that features dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, PCI Express 2.0 x16 interface to connect add-on graphics cards as well as integrated graphics core. It is projected that both chips on the MCM are made using 45nm process technology.

Google Publishes 100,000th Knol

2011-06-20T09:27:00.003-07:00

Google's Knol website has recently received its 100,000th article, known as knol, and the search engine was pleased to announce on its official blog that things were starting to go its way. The rapid expansion of the new website, which is only 5 months old, is nothing but good news, and everybody at Google expressed their admiration for the thousands of users that wrote on the site, contributing to its increasing database. Bad mouths have it that Google is currently going after Wikipedia, attempting to reclaim the first returned result to query position that the free encyclopedia owns for most one- or two-word searches.

In a way, the two projects — Knol and Wikipedia — are quite similar: they both aim at becoming a comprehensive and throughout repository of freely accessible, verifiable knowledge in text and pictures format that can be used for research released via a license that allows for free redistribution and can be freely edited by other users.

The Knol interface is now available in eight languages (Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish) and we are excited that our users are helping us translate it into many more languages using the Google in Your Language console.

Knols are basically articles, much like Wikipedia entries, which are written by experts in the field, and are meant as an online "unit of knowledge," as the site description says. As opposed to its more famed rival, Knol allows users to advertise their websites directly inside the article. Users are also allowed to name the articles however they see fit, and they can utterly disregard ambiguity issues when choosing to name their pieces in confusing terms.

AMD cut Phenom II prices

2011-06-20T09:27:00.001-07:00

The problem with not having the overall performance leadership is that your pricing is essentially determined by that of the company that does.

This is the situation AMD has found itself in since the launch of Intel's Core 2 architecture.After Intel threw down the silicon gauntlet by reducing the prices of its processors, AMD have seemingly responded in the only way they could: by cutting the cost of their 45nm Phenom II chips.

However, Intel dropped the price of the faster Q9400 to $213, instantly rendering the Phenom II 940 much less competitive.

BIOSTAR Announces AMD 760G Chipset

2011-06-20T09:26:00.005-07:00

BIOSTAR today announced the BIOSTAR TA760G M2+ / A760G M2+, powered by ATI's latest IGP-based chipset, the AM2-compatible 760G.

The 760G chipset is a value-conscious alternative to the impressive 780G, and is paired with AMD's SB710 south bridge to offer integrated Radeon 3000-series graphics.

Chipset-CPU Features

AMD 760G+SB710
Powered by ATI Radeon™ Graphics, DirectX® 10 introduces detail-rich images and dynamic interactivity for playing the latest DirectX® 10 games. AMD® 760G Chipset is designed up to 5200MT/s HyperTransport™ 3.0 (HT3.0) interface and PCI Express 2.0 x 16 graphics.

Socket AM2+ Phenom processors Support
Supported AMD® Socket AM2+ Quad /Triple Core processors, it delivers better over clocking capabilities with low power consumption. Phenom processor features dual-channel DDR2 1066 memory support and accelerates data transfer rate up to 5200MT/s via HyperTransport™ 3.0 system bus.

Availability of VoIPerfect and High Definition

2011-06-20T09:26:00.003-07:00

AudioCodes, a leading provider of Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies and Voice Network products, and MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NasdaqGS: MIPS), a leading provider of industry-standard architectures, processors and analog IP for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications and business applications, today announced the availability of AudioCodes' VoIPerfect™ and VoIPerfectHD™ Voice over IP software on MIPS32® processor cores. This combination will enable System on Chip (SoC) designers to develop cost-effective products with advanced VoIP Quality of Service (QoS) and outstanding performance—leading to a more natural voice quality for devices such as IP Phones and Integrated Access Devices (IADs) for GPON, WiMAX and ADSL.

HD VoIP technologies deliver better voice clarity, intelligibility, and richer sound than traditional voice networks, improving the user experience by doubling the audible voice spectrum. AudioCodes' HD VoIP solutions are optimized for MIPS Technologies' single-threaded and multi-threaded 32-bit cores, bringing together the high-performance MIPS® architecture with AudioCodes' leading DSP, voice coding and SIP application technologies. VoIP developers are expected to benefit from the combination of AudioCodes' software and the MIPS32® 34K® core, which leverages multi-threading to process multiple VoIP channels and preserve voice quality. With its software running on the 34K core, AudioCodes achieved an acceleration of up to one and a half times compared to a single-threaded core.

Finally Gives Up Trying To Sell Ads In Newspapers

2011-06-20T09:26:00.001-07:00

We were somewhat skeptical of what kind of advantage Google could provide to selling ads in physical publications (initially magazines) when the program launched in 2005. At best, we thought that the relationship with advertisers could maybe bring in some advertisers who didn't traditionally advertise in print. But, there was no way to provide the customization and contextualization that made Google's ad programs online so effective. And, indeed, the original program was something of a failure. The company then took a second shot, which seemed to get a lukewarm thumbs up from some newspapers, but it was hardly a rousing success.

And, indeed, the company has now admitted that they're killing off the program -- which seems unlikely to be missed. There's certainly nothing wrong with experimenting with new business models and ideas, but it was never really clear what true advantage Google provided in this space, and the shut down pretty much confirms that the answer was that there wasn't much of an advantage.

Online IPhone Development Courses offer

2011-06-20T09:25:00.007-07:00

Accelerated Internet Strategies has launched an iPhone development training program. It begins February 2, 2009 and costs $97 per course. Five courses are in the series.

Each course is offered online as a "webinar." The courses are taught live, in the evening, twice a week. They're also recorded and made available in the event you miss a session.

The five courses include

Introduction to Object Oriented Programming and Logic;
Objective-C 2.0 for iPhone Developers;
Cocoa & Xcode for iPhone Developers;
iPhone SDK Programming - Getting It Done;
iPhone SDK Programming - Advanced.

500 Million Downloads for App Store

2011-06-20T09:25:00.005-07:00

The milestone was reached in just six months, because the App Store was launched only last July, and after a few months there are 300 million downloads.

Obviously you can not know how many of these applications are downloaded for a fee, and how many of those are free. The third-party apps are increasingly popular because they allow the phone to Apple to adapt the needs of the user, rather as with Firefox and add-on.

Mobile software to reduce the carbon footprint

2011-06-20T09:25:00.003-07:00

MobiMonster2.0, a company based in New Delhi, has developed a Mobile phone application that can reduce a mobile phone's global carbon footprint. The application called, GreenPhone can monitor several power hungry features in the phone and can inform the user when these resources are consuming battery but are not required to be switched on.

GreenPhone has also been recognized by Nokia, and has been awarded as the most innovative application in its Eco-Friendly category and has been selected from Asia Pacific as a finalist for the GSM World Congress to be held in February, 2009.

GreenPhone is a first of it's kind application for Series 60 devices, infact no other Eco-Friendly application exists for Mobile Devices which monitors power and resources on the phone. The application has a basic version available for sale, but is currently being re-vamped for a worldwide presentation. GreenPhone can switch off the backlight of the phone when it is not required, notify the user when the Bluetooth and WLAN is switch on but not being used and also notify the user when the charger is not required to be connected on the phone. All these features can significantly reduce the power consumption of your phone, thus reducing the time you need to charge the phone, which results in significant saving of electricity inturn reducing the carbon foot print of a mobile device.

BladeSystem Solution Blocks for Microsoft Technologies

2011-06-20T09:25:00.001-07:00

HP announced a comprehensive set of HP BladeSystem configurations for Microsoft technologies designed to quickly and cost-effectively help organizations deploy, upgrade and consolidate Microsoft business applications onto a common infrastructure.

HP BladeSystem Solution Blocks are best-practice configurations that allow organizations to deploy reliable, optimized infrastructures to support their business applications. When deployed, the solution blocks take the guesswork out of integrating technology and business applications.

New solution blocks announced today include a collaboration configuration, based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint Server, and a data management solution block, based on Microsoft SQL Server. The addition of these offerings to the HP BladeSystem Solution Blocks for Microsoft portfolio results in a full set of solutions that customers can use to address their business needs.

"Customers can simply and cost-effectively scale their technology environment to meet the needs of the business with HP BladeSystem Solution Blocks for Microsoft," said Jim Ganthier, director of BladeSystem marketing, Enterprise Storage and Servers, HP. "This best practice, building-block approach ensures that capabilities are added as they are needed, saving organizations time and money."

Mobile malware menaces money

2011-06-20T09:24:00.005-07:00

Kaspersky is reporting this morning that a Trojan affecting Symbian systems looks to transfer money from the accounts of users of a certain mobile phone operator and into the accounts of someone else, presumably the person or persons responsible for the malware. The Trojan's not new but the target certain is.

Written in Python, the malware as per Kaspersky, Trojan-SMS.Python.Flocker, versions .ab through .af sends an SMS message with an instruction to transfer money from the user's mobile account to the other account. The amounts are rather small (under a dollar), but obviously if the infection becomes widespread, such things can add up without triggering a reaction from any scammed individual.

Firefox 2 loses Phishing Protection

2011-06-20T09:24:00.003-07:00

The data service that is used by the Phishing Protection feature in Firefox 2 has been turned off. Any Firefox 2 user with version 2.0.0.19 or later may have already noticed that the option to enable this feature is disabled.

If you're using a previous version of Firefox 2, even though the feature is enabled in your browser, as of January 20th no new data will be sent to your computer.

Google hut down the Phishing and Malware Protection service that informed Firefox 2.0 users that they were at risk when browsing malicious websites, especially spoofed sites.

indicom offers 100 percent cash back on handset

2011-06-20T09:24:00.001-07:00

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) has announced an exciting 100 per cent cash back offer on handsets for its post-paid subscribers. The offer comes with an assurance of a full refund of the full value of the handset. There are three feature-rich, colour and FM handsets under the plan -- Samsung Super Hero (Rs 1,800), Radio phone (Rs 1,800) and Motorola W212 (Rs 1,200). The scheme comes coupled with the Great Value 199 postpaid plan at a monthly rental of Rs 199.

The devices bought under this scheme will be bundled with the Great Value 199 plan. The intrinsic details of the plan are as follows:

Rent: Rs. 199
Free: 300 minutes of local calls and 200 SMS per month
Local Calls: Mobile – T2T: 30 paise; Others: 50 paise
Landline – Re. 1
SMS: Local and National: 50 paise; International – Rs. 5
STD: Rs. 1.5

On the occasion, Shashank Pore, general manager, marketing, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), said, "This is yet another initiative from Tata Indicom to offer customised and first-of-its-kind services to its esteemed subscribers. Through this unique 100 per cent cash back offer, we are delivering an amazing value proposition to the consumers. We are confident that this offer will set new benchmarks in the industry."

profit drops by 69 percent in fourth quarter

2011-06-20T09:23:00.005-07:00

The world's top mobile phone maker, Nokia Corp., on Thursday said its profits fell 69 percent in the fourth quarter as the economic downturn slowed handset sales.

Net profit was euro576 million (US$743.62 million), down from euro1.84 billion in the same period in 2007.

Sales fell 19.5 percent to euro12.7 billion, from euro15.8 billion.

The results came in below expectations, sending Nokia shares down more than 5 percent in Helsinki to euro9.66 ($12.47).

The Finnish company gave a bleak outlook for the industry, saying it expects global mobile device volumes to drop 10 percent in 2009 compared to last year.

Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the industry has been hit by "weaker consumer confidence, unprecedented currency volatility and credit tightness."

"We are taking action to reduce overall costs and to preserve our strong capital structure. This is clearly our top priority in the current economic environment," Kallasvuo said.

Nokia said its share of the handset market fell to 37 percent, down from 38 percent in the previous quarter and 40 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The company said it expects to maintain its market share at the same level in the first three months of 2009, and maintains its target of increasing market share in the full year.

Adamo And Dell Team Up For MacBook Air Rival

2011-06-20T09:23:00.003-07:00

A recent dig through Dell's trademarks turned up a couple of curiosities – "Adamo" and "Adamo by Dell."According to the documents, the trademarks cover computer hardware, including possibly desktops and laptops.

The whole "Adamo by Dell" bit sounds rather fancy for a company that lumps all of its computers under just a handful of brands. But, apparently, this computer isn't your regular Dell computer. It has its own Web site after all, which says the product is coming soon.

Throw Adamo and Dell into a search engine, and you get nothing. Well, make that almost nothing.

A luxury goods publication appears to have some early marketing collateral from Dell for Adamo. "Rumor has it that Dell is coming out with a computer called Adamo that will rival the MacBook Air," Uptownlife.net writes.

But most telling of all might have been the reaction of Michael Tatelman, Dell's vice president in charge of consumer sales and marketing, to my question about whether or not Dell had an Air-like product in store. Mr. Tatelman's mouth gaped open and his eyes darted away from my face.

If looks could reveal product dimensions, then I'd guess that Dell's going even thinner and lighter than Apple.

After a couple of moments, Mr. Tatleman said, "I think we need to get some iconic products out there, so people associate Dell's brand with other things." Namely, that's goodbye to clunky, and hello to sleek.

Apple beats expectations with record earnings

2011-06-20T09:23:00.001-07:00

Apple on Wednesday reported it finished 2008 with record quarterly profit of 1.61 billion dollars, with iPod sales hitting an
all-time high.

The iconic California company posted revenue of $10.17 billion in the three months ending December 27, 2008 and declared quarterly earnings of $1.78 per share.

Analysts had forecast Apple earnings of 1.29 dollars
per share for the quarter.

The results topped the profit of $1.58 billion, or $ 1.76 per share, seen by the firm in the same quarter a year earlier.

"Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history, surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever," Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said in a written release.

University Becomes Asia’s First CUDA

2011-06-20T09:22:00.003-07:00

NVIDIA Corporation and National Taiwan University (NTU), one of the world's leading research universities, today announced that NTU has been named as Asia's first CUDA Center of Excellence. NTU earned this title by formally adopting NVIDIA GPU Computing solutions across its research facilities and integrating a class to teach parallel computing based on the CUDA architecture into its educational curriculum. NTU joins previously recognized CUDA Centers of Excellence, University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign and University of Utah with more announcements expected in the coming weeks.

"This appointment and our adoption of GPUs will empower our academic researchers to do world-changing research," said Prof. Ji-Wang Chern, Dean for Research and Development of NTU. "This partnership with NVIDIA will help NTU improve the state of parallel computing education in Taiwan and equip the next generation of computational researchers with the tools they need to make great discoveries."

"Taiwan is the global epicenter of technology innovation and NTU is one of the key universities cultivating engineers and developers that will go on to become true pioneers in the world of IT. We are delighted to recognize their contribution by naming NTU a CUDA Center of Excellence," said David Kirk, chief scientist at NVIDIA.

Microsoft cutting jobs, but not products

2011-06-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

Although Microsoft is cutting jobs, the software maker apparently isn't axing any major products as part of its cost-cutting moves.

On a conference call with analysts Thursday, though, CEO Steve Ballmer defended the company's decision to stick by all of its businesses, even as it looks to cut up to 5,000 jobs.

"I like our portfolio," Ballmer said on the conference call. "The board likes our portfolio," he said, before moving on to the next question.

But should they be so pleased?

Microsoft itself acknowledged on the call that it does not have the leading position in several of its emerging businesses. The company makes the bulk of its money from Windows and Office. It also has a server software business that is profitable and fast-growing.
However, the software maker has struggled to attain profitability in its entertainment unit, its cell phone software unit remains small, and its online efforts continue to lose significant money.

Thus far, Microsoft has announced plans to cut only one product, its Windows Live OneCare security service. Even that one will be replaced by a new, free product code-named Morro.

The company apparently isn't cutting any entire products as part of the new

All-New Skype Now Available

2011-06-15T09:16:00.003-07:00

Skype announced the launch of Skype 4.0 for Windows, the most
distinctive new release in the company's five-year history. Thanks to
the feedback of tens of thousands of people, the new version offers
full-screen video calling, crystal clear call quality and is easier to
use than ever before. In addition, Skype users will find all of the
features they have come to expect – free voice and video calls to
other Skype users, instant messaging, SMS, as well as calls to
landlines and mobile devices around the world at very low rates.

Face-to-Face Video Calling

"Video calling has emerged as a very popular way for people to
communicate online," said Mike Bartlett, director of product strategy
for Skype. "Whether it's saying hello to your daughter at college or
reading a book to your child while you're away on business—video
calling lets you have the conversations that make a difference and it
really feels almost as good as being there."

With the all-new Skype, people can experience the benefits of free
face-to-face video calling. It's now easier to start a video call and
experience full-screen video, which makes conversations more intimate
and engaging.

Additionally, a new built-in bandwidth manager ensures that consumers
have the very best Skype video calling experience possible even on a
low-bandwidth connection. If you have a fast enough connection
(recommended 400 Kb/s or higher), a dual-core processor PC and a Skype
Certified High Quality Video webcam, Skype delivers up to
30-frames-per-second High Quality Video.

Improved Call Quality

Call quality is substantially improved in the new version of Skype.
The new audio codec achieves wideband audio quality using 50% less
bandwidth than previously required. Moreover, it introduces super
wideband audio that delivers crystal clear, richer and warmer sound to
those using a compatible headset and a high quality broadband
connection. The bandwidth manager interacts with the codec to adjust
quickly to fluctuating bandwidth conditions to produce the most
reliable sound.

Vodafone and HTC unveil Android-

2011-06-15T09:16:00.001-07:00

Vodafone and HTC Corporation on monday announced the HTC Magic
smartphone, Vodafone's first Android-powered mobile, which will be
available in the spring.

The stylish new handset is exclusive to Vodafone in the UK, Spain,
Germany and France (SFR) and available on a non-exclusive basis in
Italy. Customers can ensure that they are the first to receive
information about the HTC Magic's availability, pricing and
pre-ordering by registering their interest via their local Vodafone
website from today.

The introduction of the HTC Magic is the result of a successful
relationship between Vodafone and HTC, and Vodafone's joining, late
last year, of the Open Handset Alliance.

A tablet-style device, with a sleek design and unprecedented
compactness for a smartphone featuring the Android platform, the HTC
Magic enables a superior mobile internet experience, providing broad
flexibility for personalisation via the application-rich Android
Market. Available in white in the UK, Spain and France, black in
Germany and in both colours in Italy, the HTC Magic will be for sale
in several other Vodafone markets over the next few months.

"Delivering an unbeatable mobile internet experience for our customers
is a priority for Vodafone, so we are very excited to be introducing
our first Android-powered smartphone in the spring," says Patrick
Chomet, Global Director of Terminals, Vodafone Group. "Following our
joining of the Open Handset Alliance, we have worked very closely with
HTC to bring this cool new phone to the market. Our customers want to
access a wide range of the most attractive mobile devices to help them
make the most of their time - the HTC Magic helps meet that need."

Blackberry settles case with SEC

2011-06-15T09:15:00.003-07:00

Executives from Ontario-based telecoms firm Research in Motion (RIM)
makers of the BlackBerry have agreed to pay fines of at least 1.4
million US dollars following a financial watchdog's probe into its
stock issuing practices.

Co-Chief Executive Officers Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis and two
of the firm's other senior managers agreed to pay the US Securities
and Exchange Commission the fine following allegations that they had
illegally back-dated stock options, potentially distorting the firms
earnings.

RIM said in a statement that through the settlement the group neither
admitted nor denied the allegations.

Earlier this month the firm's bosses made a similar deal with
regulators of the Toronto Stock Exchange after it emerged that they
may have wrongly backdated stock options for staff as far back as
1996.

In 2007, a probe by RIM's board found that the company had backdated
more than 40 percent of stock options granted to its employees since
1996, including 12 of 16 option grants made to Balsillie and co-chief
executive Mike Lazaridis for two million shares.

IBUYPOWER Launches Gaming Systems

2011-06-15T09:15:00.001-07:00

IBUYPOWER prepped a pair of Intel machines, one spec out and priced
around the 505 setup with Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 and NVIDIA GeForce
8400GS; the other driven by i7 920 (2.66Ghz) and NVIDIA GeForce
9800GT, built for more developed gamer in mind. Both the Intel rigs
are housed in a painted iBUYPOWER Vantage Case with a detailed Halo2
side panel graphic.

The Gamer Extreme 968i is targeted at a more developed gamer, and
features an Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz Processor and the venerable
NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT. Like the Gamer Power 903, the Gamer Extreme
968i is housed in the intimidating iBUYPOWER Vantage enclosure, but
has the power to play the more graphic intensive titles like Far Cry
2, Mirror's Edge, and FEAR 2.

NEC Expands 32-bit Microcontrollers With Built-in

2011-06-15T09:14:00.003-07:00

NEC Electronics Corporation today announced that it has developed nine
new 32-bit All Flash(R) microcontrollers (MCUs) with built-in Ethernet
interface and embedded flash memory. The new products are ideal for
remote and supervisory control of industrial devices and
building-management systems and include six 128-pin variants, named
V850ES/JH3-E and three 144-pin variants, named V850ES/JJ3-E.

The new products have the following features: (1) Integrated Ethernet
media access controller (MAC) channel, eliminating the need for an
external Ethernet controller; (2) Up to 512 kilobytes (KB) of flash
memory and up to 124 KB of random access memory (RAM), making it
possible to run network software using on-chip memory alone; (3)
Peripheral functions including full speed USB 2.0 interface and CAN
interface.

Originally deployed as a networking technology for office computers,
servers, and office automation equipments, Ethernet is now the world's
most widespread wired local area network (LAN) technology. Over the
next few years, Ethernet is expected to be further used for remote and
supervisory control of industrial devices, building-management
systems, home networks, and utility meters for the gas, water, and
electricity. Factory Automation equipments in particular has been a
field in which designers traditionally used proprietary network
architectures but with the growing popularity of Ethernet, more and
more developers are moving to Ethernet to facilitate network
communication.

Hp joins the ubuntu linux bandwagon

2011-06-15T09:14:00.001-07:00

HP's Linux support will no longer be limited to Red Hat and SuSE
Linux. Through a new partnership with Canonical, HP is becoming one of
the latest in a series of huge IT players to hop aboard the Ubuntu
Linux bandwagon.

More specifically, HP and Linux distributor Canonical are now working
toward full certification of Ubuntu on HP Proliant servers, according
to Mark Murphy, Canonical's alliances manager.

"This will give another layer of assurance to users and customers --
particularly in the enterprise -- with market leader HP recognizing
the growing importance of Ubuntu to enterprise and SMB customers,"
Murphy wrote in the Canonical Blog on Monday. "The certification means
HP will list Ubuntu as a supported operating system and verify the
work undertaken by Canonical to ensure full certified compatibility.
Furthermore, both companies are fully cooperating at the engineering
level to provide full underlying confidence for HP customers using the
certified servers."

Meanwhile, earlier this month, HP released an Ubuntu-based custom OS
for its Mini 1000 Mi Edition netbook.

Like IBM, although not in the same ways, HP is now adding Ubuntu to a
roster of Linux distributions previously limited to Red Hat and
Novell's SuSE Linux.

Nintendo DSi to be launch on April 5

2011-06-15T09:13:00.005-07:00

Nintendo pioneered hand-held entertainment in the '80s and made it
fully mobile with the Game Boy video game system. Now, Nintendo is
transforming the way people access, experience, create and share
content with the new Nintendo DSi™ system, the third iteration of the
world's best-selling portable video game system. Nintendo DSi launches
in the United States on April 5, 2009, at an MSRP of $169.99. The
colors available at launch will be Blue and Black.

"Ever since the arrival of the first Game Boy, consumers worldwide
have turned to Nintendo for their portable gaming," said Cammie
Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales &
Marketing. "Nintendo DSi builds on Nintendo's commitment to bringing
fun and creative entertainment to everyone, and will allow consumers
to personalize and share their very own experiences."

Some features that will be built into the system and ready to enjoy
upon purchase include the Nintendo DSi Camera, Nintendo DSi Sound and
Nintendo DSi Shop. The most noticeable feature of the slim Nintendo
DSi system is its two cameras – one camera is on the external body,
and the second one points at the user when the device is flipped open.
As the first truly interactive digital camera in a video game system
with 10 different interactive "lenses" that can manipulate your
photos, the Nintendo DSi Camera offers an easy way to take and share
your photos with family and friends. The cameras also present people
with unprecedented ways to interact with their games while giving
developers a new tool to devise creative games and experiences. If the
touch screen gave Nintendo DS a sense of feel and the microphone
allowed it to hear, the two cameras give Nintendo DSi the sense of
sight.

iPhone features in rivals' new phones

2011-06-15T09:13:00.003-07:00

Copying a few pages from the playbook of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone
strategy, which brings many of the powers of the Internet to mobile
phones, is no way to beat the computer interloper at its game.

But that's exactly what many of the world's biggest handsets makers
are trying to do with new copycat phones and services that ape key
features of the iPhone.

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world's biggest annual
trade show for the wireless industry, Apple is everywhere and nowhere.
The company avoids such events, preferring to unveil products at its
own venues.

The handset business will produce more than a billion phones this
year, but is suffering a crisis of confidence brought on by sharply
changing business models that has only been exaggerated by the global
economic slump.

"Imagination is expensive in a year such as this," said Richard
Windsor, a technology analyst at the conference who is with Nomura
Securities in London.

Terminal Reality Announces New Game Engine

2011-06-15T09:13:00.001-07:00

Terminal Reality Announces a Breakthrough in Videogame Development:
The Infernal Engine

The world of videogame development has taken a turn for the better
with Terminal Reality's highly featured, all-in-one Infernal Engine

Terminal Reality officially announced today their revolutionary
next-generation development platform, the Infernal Engine. This new
technology powers the much-anticipated Ghostbusters: The Video Game, a
continuation of the Ghostbusters story. Terminal Reality will also
license the Infernal Engine to third parties and is currently
scheduling private meetings at the DICE Conference this February 17 –
20 in Red Rock, NV.

The Infernal Engine is a high-quality cross-platform engine

The Infernal Engine offers excellent cross platform support and is
compatible with all of the leading gaming systems as well as the PC.
Thanks to the extensive experience of the team at Terminal Reality,
the Infernal Engine takes full advantage of next generation hardware
while scaling easily to all systems. Veteran monster-killer The
Stranger (from Terminal Reality's 1999 hit title NOCTURNE) appears
here in his new incarnation, updated to take full advantage of
Infernal Engine's latest tech advances. The Stranger will be featured
in upcoming Infernal Engine technology demos.

FISHLABS and Nokia sign N-Gage agreement

2011-06-15T09:12:00.005-07:00

Nokia and FISHLABS Entertainment GmbH, a leading developer and
publisher of high-quality 3D mobile games, today announced an
agreement to bring games to the N-Gage service.

Titles scheduled for release in 2009 include, Powerboat Challenge(TM),
Rally Master Pro(TM), and Snowboard Hero(TM) followed by Galaxy on
Fire(TM) and Blades & Magic(TM) in early 2010. All titles will be
significantly improved in terms of graphics and sound quality and will
be enhanced with additional features. With the powerful multimedia
capabilities of N-Gage compatible mobile phones, FISHLABS can now
offer an even better gaming experience.

"The N-Gage cooperation with Nokia is one of the most important
milestones for FISHLABS since its founding," says Michael Schade, CEO
of FISHLABS Entertainment GmbH. "Being able to market games on
millions of devices with the marketing power of the world's largest
mobile phone manufacturer is a major success for us. Our strategy of
relying exclusively on high-quality, innovative mobile games fits
perfectly with that of Nokia to sell only the best products on
N-Gage."

Mozilla and Skype join the EFF

2011-06-15T09:12:00.003-07:00

While the U.S. government is poised to revise the DMCA (Digital
Millennium Copyright Act) to protect copyright in the digital age, the
EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) asked what practices jailbreaking
of the iPhone is permitted as an exception. Today we learn that
Mozilla and Skype share this position.

Last Monday, in response to this demand, Apple has provided on its
official positions facing jailbreaking "jailbreak techniques widely
generalized use of unauthorized modification of bootloader and the OS
(...) which leads to a violation of Skype, placed on these programs,
"explained the firm's lawyers from Cupertino. This is not a surprise
since Apple developers have repeatedly filled the gaps in the system
used by third party programmers.

More precisely, if this exception proposed by the EFF was accepted
into the DMCA, Apple would still be able to take legal action against
developers modifying the system's internal phone book. However, the
practices of jailbreaking, designed to break the protection measures
implemented by Apple, would facilitate the work of hackers.

John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla Corporation, says his side is the side of
the EFF."This is not to criticize Apple," he says, "but it is a matter
of principle. The user should have the choice, which should not lead
to repercussions. The Mozilla Foundation has never proposed Fennec,
its mobile version of Firefox under development for the iPhone but
Apple has stated that software competing with those embedded by
default on the phone are not accepted within the App Store. Anyway
John Lilly says that even if the exception of the jailbreak were to be
accepted by the regulators of the DMCA, Mozilla probably does not
venture on the side of the iPhone.

Engineering the Windows 7 Boot

2011-06-15T09:12:00.001-07:00

As we connect through this blog and through all of those talking about
Windows 7 it is clear that folks have a lot of passion around many
topics. We learned early on about the passion around the boot/startup
sequence and how important it was for that to go by quickly! At the
same time, we know that it is really dull to watch a HDD light blink
when resuming a machine from hibernate or powering up a machine. To
improve this first connection with people, we set out to improve the
boot sequence—jazz it up if you will. It sounds pretty easy, but as we
looked into solving this we found it is a pretty significant
engineering challenge. Our goal was to have fun while having no impact
on the boot performance of the system. To explain this engineering and
describe the boot sequence, Karen Wong, a program manager on our Core
User Experience feature team, authored this post. --Steven

Design

We use the word "personality" to refer to some of the characteristics
of software that connect emotionally with people. 'Light' and 'energy'
are some of the terms we use to describe the personality of Windows 7.
As we designed Windows 7 it became clear that in order to showcase
these elements of Win7's personality, we needed go above and beyond
what we did with Vista's boot visuals.

Siemens Survey Reveals Low Awareness

2011-06-15T09:11:00.007-07:00

Given the growing strain placed on the power grid every day and the
increasing demand for data processing and storage, corporations have
no choice but to start identifying areas to amplify energy
efficiencies immediately. However, according to a Siemens survey
released today, many companies are uncertain about how to best
accomplish new efficiency expectations. The new study, which examined
general IT efficiency attitudes and practices, revealed nearly three
quarters of the Fortune 2000 respondents (87%) believe it is important
to pursue overall energy efficient practices, but only 48% have a
stated goal to reduce their carbon footprint, and even less have begun
to take action.

"As businesses continue to search for ways to save money and alleviate
the strain on the power grid, green technology across the board is
becoming a necessity rather than just 'the right thing to do' --
examining and implementing data center efficiencies is one major area
we cannot overlook," stated Ken Cornelius, CEO of Siemens One, a
business unit of German engineering giant, Siemens AG. "If we do not
start looking closely at our data centers now, 70% of the world's data
centers will have tangible system disruptions by 2011 and the systems
will experience world-wide brown outs over the course of the next five
years."

Data centers alone account for 2.5% of the world's energy use, which
is expected to grow by an astonishing 12% a year, placing even more
unnecessary strain on the power grid. The EPA notes that the energy
used by datacenters in the U.S. is more than the electricity consumed
by all of the nation's color TV sets and comparable to the electricity
consumption of approximately 5.8 million homes. According to the
survey, a majority (65%) of leading Fortune 2000 companies recently
reported that the costs of running their data centers have increased
over the last few years, which certainly is no surprise given the
growing number of data centers across the U.S.

Photo of next-gen Apple Mac

2011-06-15T09:11:00.005-07:00

The photo shows the rear of a Mac mini that includes five USB ports
instead of 4, both mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort connectors, and
FireWire 800 instead of 400

For what it's worth, this is the second picture of a Mac mini seen by
AppleInsider with such a port makeup, the first of which we were asked
not to publish. While we cannot vouch for the authenticity of this new
photo, it shows a Mac mini that is identical in every way to the
system in the unpublished photo, which was said to be a prototype from
last fall.

While we cannot vouch for the authenticity of this new photo, it shows
a Mac mini that is identical in every way to the system in the
unpublished photo.

People familiar with Apple's plans have said that the new Mac mini,
like Apple's MacBook families and upcoming line of iMacs, will be
powered by chipsets from NVIDIA Corp.

ZyXEL Showcases Green Products for

2011-06-15T09:11:00.003-07:00

ZyXEL Communications, a world leader in broadband access solutions,
will introduce its green technology with a series of digital home
devices including comprehensive Wireless N routers, Powerline, Network
Storage Appliance, and Digital Media Adapter at Cebit 2009 in Hall 13,
booth C70 from March 3to 8. The new eco-friendly products provide
users more high performance, energy-saving solutions while meeting the
users' need for multimedia streaming.

Complying with the three EU directives – WEEE (Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment), RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), and
EuP (Eco-Design Requirements for Energy Using Products) -- to
manufacture environmentally responsible products, ZyXEL also optimizes
devices such as network storage appliances, digital media adapters,
and wireless routers with ENERGY STAR® qualified power adapters to
help users save energy costs and protect the environment.

Featuring the unique wireless scheduler, ZyXEL 802.11n series routers,
including NBG-460N, NBG-420N, NBG-417N, and NBG-419N, can be
configured to turn on or off automatically, according to the user's
wireless usage pattern. Users may have the router automatically start
up when they get home and shut off when they go to sleep. Using this
customized and intelligent energy-saving benefit, the routers can save
energy consumption and associated cost when not in use.

Sony Integrates Corel InstantON Technology

2011-06-15T09:11:00.001-07:00

Corel Corporation announced Corel® InstantON™ technology is now
included in the award-winning Sony® VAIO® P series Lifestyle PC.

With Corel InstantON technology, VAIO P series Lifestyle PC users can
surf the web, check email, chat online and play back photos, videos
and music in seconds after turning on their notebook, saving the time
of booting up their Windows operating system.

Jeff Hastings, President and General Manager, Digital Media at Corel,
Quote:
We are pleased to work with Sony to provide a superior instant-on
solution for their VAIO P series Lifestyle PC. Users will find an
all-new, custom-designed interface that provides a complete, efficient
and secure way to quickly access online content at home or on the go.

Bob Ishida, Senior Vice President, Corporate Executive, President of
VAIO Business Group, Sony Corporation,
Quote:
As the world's lightest 8 inch notebook at 1.4 pounds, the VAIO P
series Lifestyle PC deserves a superior instant-on solution to meet
the needs of today's mobile computer user. By adopting Corel InstantON
technology, users will enjoy a stress-free and exciting user
experience through an easy-to-use interface that accesses the internet
faster than ever before.

Intel Notifies AMD of Cross-License Breach Efforts to

2011-06-12T10:12:00.001-07:00

Intel Corporation today disclosed that the company has notified
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that it believes AMD has breached a 2001
patent cross-license agreement with Intel. Intel believes that Global
Foundries is not a subsidiary under terms of the agreement and is
therefore not licensed under the 2001 patent cross-license agreement.
Intel also said the structure of the deal between AMD and ATIC
breaches a confidential portion of that agreement. Intel has asked AMD
to make the relevant portion of the agreement public, but so far AMD
has declined to do so. AMD's breach could result in the loss of
licenses and rights granted to AMD by Intel under the agreement.

"Intellectual property is a cornerstone of Intel's technology
leadership and for more than 30 years, the company has believed in the
strategic importance of licensing intellectual property in exchange
for fair value. However AMD cannot unilaterally extend Intel's
licensing rights to a third party without Intel's consent," said Bruce
Sewell, senior vice president and general counsel for Intel. "We have
attempted to address our concerns with AMD without success since
October. We are willing to find a resolution but at the same time we
have an obligation to our stockholders to protect the billions of
dollars we've invested in intellectual property."
Under terms of the license agreement the notification to AMD means the
parties will attempt to resolve the dispute through mediation. In
response to the notification AMD claimed Intel breached the agreement
by notifying AMD of its breach. Intel believes that position is
inconsistent with the dispute resolution process outlined in the
original agreement.
Intel [NASDAQ: INTC], the world leader in silicon innovation, develops
technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how
people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available
at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.

VIA Surfboard C855 for full 1080p netbooks

2011-06-12T10:11:00.005-07:00

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86
processor platforms, today announced the VIA Surfboard C855 Reference
Design – an ultra-compact mainboard incorporating the VIA C7-M ULV
processor, the brand new VIA VX855 unified IGP chipset, and advanced
VIA multimedia and connectivity silicon, that has been specifically
designed for easy integration into devices targeted at the rapidly
growing mini-notebook market.

Unveiled today at the VIA Global Mobility Bazaar (GMB) Tech Forum
Spring in Shenzhen, China – an event bringing together a host of PC
manufacturing and infrastructure partners focused on delivering
affordable, power efficient mini-notebooks to global markets – the VIA
Surfboard C855 Reference Design will not only reduce development time
and costs for system manufacturers, but offers the latest advancements
in ultra-mobile technology including smooth playback of high bit-rate
1080p HD video and outstanding 8-channel HD audio.

While consumers have been quick to endorse the mini-notebook form
factor and the convenience provided by its connectivity and web
surfing capabilities, the rise of HD video has resulted in a growing
demand for better visual computing from ultra-mobile products.

The VIA Surfboard C855 meets this demand by providing flawless
playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video, which along with support for
internal display resolutions of up to 1366 x 768 pixels and external
display resolutions up to 1920 x 1440 pixels, the latest high
definition VIA Vinyl Audio, and a wide range of connectivity options,
allows for a rich on-the-go multimedia experience.

"A key advantage of the VIA Surfboard C855 is the head start it
affords mini-notebook system developers or those seeking to enter the
market," said Richard Brown, Vice President of Marketing, VIA
Technologies, Inc. "Not only is VIA in the unique position of being
able to offer customers a complete, ready-to-build solution, but the
new board's HD capabilities mean VIA-based mini-notebooks will provide
a superior multi-media entertainment experience."

Anark Releases Anark Core 2.2

2011-06-12T10:11:00.003-07:00

Revolutionary 3D CAD Transformation Platform Now Bridges Gap between
Mechanical CAD and AEC Markets

Anark Corporation, leading provider of automated 3D CAD transformation
and visualization solutions today announced the release of the Anark
Core Platform 2.2. This new release now supports direct export of the
Autodesk DWG format, providing a valuable bridge between mechanical
CAD and AEC products and solutions.

The Anark Core platform is an innovative software platform that
quickly and easily transforms native 3D CAD data for use throughout
manufacturing, design, engineering, and support organizations. Unlike
conventional CAD tools and translators, Anark Core enables users to
automate the modification of 3D product structure and geometry, and
export revised product data into high-precision B-rep and lightweight
mesh formats.

The addition of 3D DWG support enables users to quickly and easily
convert and simplify their 3D CAD geometry for use in industry leading
AEC and visualization products such as Autodesk Revit, Bentley
MicroStation, Google SketchUp, 20-20 Technologies Cap Studio, and
others. Anark Core's powerful automation capabilities, coupled with
support for 3D mechanical and AEC CAD formats, enables manufacturers
to exponentially reduce costs by automating the production of
optimized lightweight DWG models for use in layout, space planning,
configuration, and catalog applications.

"After receiving a consistently growing number of inquiries and
requests, we are happy now to deliver a streamlined bridge between
native 3D mechanical CAD data and leading AEC applications," said
Stephen Collins, CEO, Anark Corporation. "Anark Core 2.2 includes
several robust new features and performance enhancements, and the
addition of the DWG format further extends its value to a large and
important group of consumers of 3D CAD geometry."

"Our customers and supply chain partners will benefit greatly from the
latest version of Anark Core," said Jean Mignault, CEO of 20-20
Technologies. "Autodesk DWG format support will allow them to easily
prepare lightweight 3D models for use in our Cap Studio and Office
Sales products, which will dramatically cut their implementation time
and cost for their space planning and 3D catalog applications."

Additionally, Anark Core 2.2 includes numerous new features and
performance enhancements, including a new feature called "Region
Select" that drastically reduces the time to create shell geometry for
visualization and simulation applications as well as supply chain data
exchange and collaboration. The company also added direct export
support for MultiGen-Paradigm's OpenFlight format, the de-facto visual
database format for simulation and visualization applications.

Dexim Introduces Compact Sync Adapter for 3G

2011-06-12T10:11:00.001-07:00

The new iPod shuffle (third generation) ships with its own sync &
charge solution provided by Apple. The accessory is a USB cable a few
inches long, while Apple claims that third-party vendors produce
longer cables. The people at Dexim, however, see things differently –
no cord, just a compact adapter with a USB plug on one end, and the
jack plug on the other.

Set to be released on April 4, the aluminum Shu-Lip is similar to
Incipio's IncipioBud for the previous generation shuffle, Macworld
points out. Just like the IncipioBud, Dexim's Shu-Lip features a
standard USB plug and an iPod-shuffle charge/sync plug, each on one
end of the adapter. What makes the Shu-Lip great, as far as we can
tell, is that the adapter sports the same width and depth (and design)
as the shuffle itself. Basically, when the two devices are connected,
they should look as one (second picture down).

The 3rd Gen shuffle connected to an Apple MacBook via Shu-Lip
Enlarge picture
"Now you have the latest & most fashionable music player, the iPod
shuffle," says Dexim. "Surely you want your accessories to match. Want
to charge and sync your shuffle anywhere without carrying a long cord
in your pocket, bag, or purse? Dexim Shu-Lip offers great connect
solution for iPod shuffle! Perfect in size, and simple to use. Charge
& sync your iPod shuffle anywhere without the fuss of a cord," reads a
post on the company's web site.

Instant PC Recovery Solution Honored by GCN

2011-06-12T10:10:00.005-07:00

CMS Products, Inc. a leader in data security, backup, disaster
recovery and content management technologies is proud to announce that
BounceBack Ultimate™ its new "Instant PC Recovery" product offering,
received a special "Best of FOSE Judges' Award" at FOSE 2009 in
Washington, D.C.

The special award recognizes an innovative solution for government in
an area not covered in the usual competition categories. GCN's editors
and technology analysts reviewed the new products during FOSE show
hours and chose the winners based on four criteria: innovation,
usability/applicability to government; relative performance based on
specifications; and value.

BounceBack Ultimate with "Instant PC Recovery" is the first
commercially-available software product that enables computer users to
instantly recover their PC following a hard drive "crash."

Apple Previews Developer Beta of iPhone OS 3.0

2011-06-12T10:10:00.003-07:00

Apple today previewed its iPhone OS 3.0 software and announced the
immediate availability of a beta software release to registered
developers. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release includes an updated
Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,000 new Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs) including In-App Purchases; Peer-to-Peer
connections; an app interface for accessories; access to the iPod
music library; a new Maps API and Push Notifications. Apple also
announced over 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and
iPod touch users this summer including cut, copy and paste; MMS;
landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes; stereo Bluetooth; syncing
Notes to the Mac and PC; shake to shuffle; parental controls for TV
shows, movies and apps from the App Store; and automatic login at
Wi-Fi hot spots. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release will also include a
new Voice Memo app and expanded search capability for all key iPhone
apps, as well as Spotlight search across the iPhone or iPod touch.

"The new iPhone OS 3.0 is a major software release packed with
incredible new features and innovations for iPhone customers and
developers alike. It will keep us years ahead of the competition,"
said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide
Product Marketing.

The iPhone OS 3.0 beta software and SDK include over 1,000 new APIs
and are available today for all iPhone Developer Program members to
use for development and testing of their apps for iPhone and iPod
touch. Included in these APIs is the ability to leverage the
incredible purchase model of the App Store within apps. In-App
Purchases will allow developers to offer subscription content and
provide the ability to sell new content and features in a simple and
secure process. Developers can also more easily create peer-to-peer
games for iPhone and iPod touch by using Bluetooth.

Another key developer feature in the iPhone OS 3.0 beta software is
the ability for apps to interface with hardware accessories, creating
a whole new element of control for iPhone and iPod touch accessory
developers as well as a new ecosystem of solutions for customers.
Developers will also be able to use Apple's new Maps API to integrate
Google Mobile Maps services within their apps which will offer Google
Map tiles, current location, custom annotations and geocoding. The
iPhone OS 3.0 beta software includes the Apple Push Notification
service which provides developers with a mechanism to alert users with
sounds, text or a badge.

The new iPhone OS 3.0 software will be available to iPhone and iPod
touch users this summer with over 100 new features including cut, copy
and paste which can be done within or across applications; MMS to send
and receive photos, contacts, audio files and locations with the
Messages app; and the ability to capture and send audio recordings on
the go with the new Voice Memo app. Landscape view will be available
for Mail, Text and Notes. Search capabilities will be expanded,
allowing customers to search within Mail, iPod and Notes or search
across all key apps by typing a key word or phrase into the new
Spotlight search, conveniently accessed from the Home screen.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Beta has been released to Microsoft

2011-06-12T10:10:00.001-07:00

According to reports Windows Mobile 6.5 Beta has been released to
Microsoft employees, and the software will soon enter the RTM version,
it means that we have probably true at Q3 of this year to see Windows
Mobile 6.5 mobile phone appeared on the market. They speculate
entirely to the staff based on the following Microsoft released
Windows Mobile 6.5 beta announcement.

The following are the stories reported by Neowin once in Windows
Mobile 6.5 Roadmap:
* Windows Mobile 6.5 RTM will be coming in April 2009
* The first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices will be listed in September 2009

At the same time, take a look at the Windows Mobile team's latest
ads:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgQ-xLdCSjo

AMD Supports Microsoft Windows 7 in ATI Catalyst

2011-06-12T10:09:00.005-07:00

AMD today released Windows 7 driver support as part of the latest ATI
Catalyst 9.3 unified graphics driver. ATI Catalyst 9.3 represents the
industry's first unified driver installation package to incorporate
Windows 7 support, including Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.1
compliance, bringing with it a host of benefits for developers
currently testing and updating applications using the widely available
Windows 7 beta release. In addition, the inclusion of Windows 7
drivers sends a clear message to the millions of AMD graphics
customers worldwide – ATI Catalyst 9.3, and every planned future
release of ATI Catalyst, is ready for the final release of Windows 7.

In addition to the rock-solid stability of ATI Radeon graphics drivers
for Windows 7, the combination of Windows 7 and ATI Radeon graphics
permits developers to fully utilize the DirectX 10.1

ASUS Bags Prestigious 2009 Red Dot Design Awards

2011-06-12T10:09:00.003-07:00

For distinctions in high quality design, ASUS has received the
prestigious 2009 red dot design awards for the Eee PC S101, the
EeeKeyboard PC, the ASUS S121 and P30 notebooks, and the ASUS
Chocolate notebook keyboard. Furthermore, the ASUS RT-N17 wireless
storage router and ASUS L-Series laptop bags also won red dot design
Honourable Mention awards.

The international red dot design award ranks among the largest and
most famous design competitions in the world. Each year an
international jury reviews and evaluates the submitted products
according to stringent criteria like degree of innovation,
functionality and the formal quality of the product. This ensures that
the seriousness of the competition and its international acceptance is
upheld.

ASUS is proud to present the red dot award: product design 2009 winners:

red dot award: Product Design 2009 Winners

Description

Eee PC S101

The ASUS Eee PC S101 is exquisitely designed for fashion forward
individuals who view style as much of a factor of success as
substance. Boasting a wholly reforged exterior in four gorgeous
colors—Brown, Champagne, Graphite or Pink—accentuated with delightful
details such as premium Infusion finishes and crystal-adorned hinges,
a successful melding of fashion and functionality easily situates it
at the pinnacle of portable computing.

Apple Inc unveiled new software for the iPhone

2011-06-12T10:09:00.001-07:00

Apple unveiled new software for the iPhone that will support some
long-anticipated features, such as copy-and-paste of text and picture
messaging, as the company pushes to stay competitive in the phone
market.

Apple also gave its vast network of software developers a slew of new
options for upcoming applications, such as support for subscription
models and automatic alerts, a move applauded by analysts.

"They've taken a few more steps ahead of the pack in the race," said
CCS Insight analyst John Jackson, adding that, in spite of the
omission of certain features until now, the iPhone was still the most
high-profile cell phone.

"Two years on they still have the cool phone and business model that
everybody's talking about and trying to emulate."

While Apple's touchscreen inspired many imitators, some users
complained it lacked functions common in other smartphones such as
multimedia messaging and the ability to copy and paste text.

Such features already exist on rival devices such as the BlackBerry
from Research In Motion Ltd and Treo from Palm Inc and phones based on
Windows Mobile from Microsoft Corp. iPhone is central to Apple's
plans, as growth in its Mac computer and iPod music player businesses
slows.

On Tuesday, Apple -- represented by iPhone software senior vice
president Scott Forstall, as Chief Executive Steve Jobs is out on
medical leave -- lifted the veil on iPhone 3.0 software with 100 new
features, including some long-wished for updates.

Xbox 360 and EA Bring Beloved HASBRO FAMILY

2011-06-12T10:08:00.005-07:00

Watch out, Junior. Now your cousin in Boston can sink your Battleship
in Phoenix. The HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT destination from Electronic
Arts Inc. (Nasdaq "ERTS") launches Wednesday on Xbox LIVE, the premier
gaming and entertainment network.

Starting Wednesday, players can download digital versions of some of
the world's most beloved family-friendly board games: SCRABBLE,
CONNECT 4, BATTLESHIPand YAHTZEE. Through Xbox LIVE, fans can then
play these cherished games with friends and family members1 seated
nearby on the couch or across the globe.2 BOGGLE, SORRY! and SORRY!
Sliders will also launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade in the coming months.

The HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT destination is one of many ways Xbox 360
is bringing families more fun and entertainment at a greater value
than ever before. Xbox 360 puts the entertainment you love all in one
place. Want to host a family movie night any time? Download or
instantly watch one of the 30,000 movies and TV shows on Xbox LIVE.3
Looking for a new twist on game night? Pick up one of the more than
200 family-friendly games that get everyone playing together on Xbox
360.

"Hasbro defined the original family game night," said Scott Austin,
director of digitally distributed games at Microsoft. "Today, Xbox 360
is introducing a new generation of game players to the next generation
of family game night through Xbox LIVE Arcade. Families can now
connect and play across the globe in addition to across the coffee
table."

The HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT lineup takes full advantage of the latest
features and innovations on Xbox LIVE. Play as your own custom avatar
and use voice chat to declare, "I win!" in real time to friends and
family around the world. You can show off your mad word skills,
increase your Gamerscore, earn Achievements when you connect four in a
row and compete for a top spot on the Xbox LIVE Arcade leader boards.

Apple Unveils iPhone 3.0 firmware

2011-06-12T10:08:00.003-07:00

iPhone 3.0 firmware has just be previewed, and I must say, it
definitely got us interested. Apart from running background apps, it
features almost all of the features we were hoping the iPhone 3.0
firmware will come with and then some for the 2G iPod Touch as well.
Here's a quick rundown of the new features and apps it will come with:

• Cut, copy and paste
• MMS with message forwarding and deleting of multiple messages
• Bluetooth stereo A2DP
• Tethering
• New Spotlight feature for universal search on the iPhone/iPod Touch
• New Voice Memos app
• Revised Stocks app that features news stories and supports landscape view
• Calendar now supports CalDAV and subscriptions in the .ics format
• Landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes
• Note syncing to Mac and PC
• Parental controls for TV shows, movies and App Store apps
• Auto-login for WiFi hotspots
• Shake the shuffle iPod playback
• Phishing protection
• Form auto-fill
• YouTube account support
• Bluetooth on the 2G iPod touch

They've also included some new features developers can take advantage
of when creating and/or updating their apps. Here's what future apps
can boast of:

Symantec Announces New Norton Internet Security 4

2011-06-12T10:08:00.001-07:00

Symantec Corp., makers of Norton security software, today announced
the availability of Norton Internet Security 4 for Mac, a
next-generation security suite that integrates an all-new firewall and
antivirus protection with tools to help protect against identity
theft. The newest version of Norton Internet Security for Mac installs
in about one minute and features an improved user interface with fast,
unobtrusive updates. In addition, the solution includes fully
configurable settings for more technical users.

Symantec also launched today Norton Internet Security for Mac Dual
Protection, securing Mac users running Boot Camp or other Windows
virtualization software – programs that allow users to run both Mac OS
X Leopard and Windows operating systems. This solution provides
comprehensive protection from both Mac and Windows-based
vulnerabilities and malicious code. With Norton Internet Security for
Mac Dual Protection, Mac users benefit by receiving Symantec's newest
security suite for the Mac and the award-winning Norton Internet
Security 2009 for Windows.

While automatically blocking computers attempting to exploit
vulnerabilities from connecting to the Mac using different protocols,
Norton Internet Security for Mac's firewall now also offers
application control, which allows users to manage the applications
that are connecting to the Internet, protecting Macs from spyware.
Also, new location awareness controls let users specify different
connection settings for every network to which the computer is
connected. Norton Internet Security for Mac is also integrated with
Symantec's DeepSight Threat Management System, updating the firewall
rules at least once a day to protect against the latest attacking IP
addresses.

According to the Symantec Report on the Underground Economy, credit
card and financial information make up more than 50 percent of the
stolen goods advertised by cyber criminals online. [1] To help
consumers protect their personal information online from phishing
threats, Norton Internet Security for Mac now includes the leading
commercial antiphishing solution for Safari and Firefox browsers. By
blocking fake Web sites and authenticating popular Web sites, Norton
Internet Security for Mac allows users to bank, shop and browse online
with confidence.

Google Releases Faster Chrome Web

2011-06-12T10:07:00.007-07:00

Google released a new version of its Chrome Web browser on Tuesday, as
the search giant continues its efforts to get a foothold in a market
dominated by Microsoft.

The new Chrome represents the first major update of the software aimed
at the general public since Google entered the browser business six
months ago.

It offers Web surfers faster performance and a handful of new
features, such as auto-filling of personal information on online forms
and a new way for users to drag around tabs of different Web pages
within the browser window.

Google was a distant No 4 in the browser market, with 1.2 per cent
share of the worldwide market in February, according to market
research firm Net Applications. Microsoft's Internet Explorer
dominates the market, with a 67.4 per cent market share in February,
while the Mozilla foundation's Firefox browser had a roughly 22 per
cent share.

Apple's Safari browser had an 8 per cent share. Last month, Google
officially joined the European Union's antitrust case against
Microsoft, describing the browser market as "largely uncompetitive."

The EU has charged Microsoft with abusing its dominant market position
by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows
personal computer operating system. According to a post on Google's
blog on Tuesday, the new Chrome beta loads certain types of Web pages
25 per cent to 35 per cent faster than the current version of the
browser.

ORACLE sustains healthy contract signings

2011-06-12T10:07:00.005-07:00

Oracle Corporation's sales force pulled off a big feat in the business
software maker's latest quarter, sustaining a healthy clip of contract
signings amid a dreary time for technology spending.

The efforts helped push Oracle's sales and profit above Wall Street's
forecasts. Oracle also surprised investors by declaring its first
dividend, a rare sign of confidence that comes as other bellwethers
are cutting or suspending their dividends to save money.

Oracle's shares jumped $1.11, or 7 percent, to $16.94 in after-hours
trading Wednesday after Oracle reported its results. The stock had
gained 43 cents, or 2.8 percent, to close the regular trading session
at $15.83.

Oracle's chief executive, Larry Ellison, called the numbers a
"tremendous achievement in the face of the serious slowdown in the
world economy."

In Oracle's fiscal third quarter, which covers December-February,
Oracle said it earned $1.33 billion, or 26 cents per share, versus
$1.34 billion, also 26 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Subtracting out one-time charges, profit was 35 cents per share. That
was 3 cents better than the average estimate from analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters on that same basis.

Sales were $5.45 billion, a 2 percent increase over last year, though
Oracle said revenue would have jumped 11 percent without the effect of
a stronger dollar, which meant deals done in other currencies weren't
worth as much in dollars.

Z-Wave-Capable "Smart Metering"

2011-06-12T10:07:00.003-07:00

Horstmann, manufacturer of energy controls and metering devices,
offers consumers transparency and control for their energy consumption
with its "H" Series and "SG" Series product lines. The combination of
electric/gas meter and consumption indication gives consumers an
overview of their energy usage – by the half hour, by the day, or by
the month. Using GSM/GPRS, the Smart Metering data from the "SG"
Series is transmitted to the power company for improved customer
information and billing. The Home Energy Monitor receives the data via
Z-Wave Mesh networking technology, and can also be integrated into a
Home Control network.Smart Metering technology is – thanks to
intelligent metering – a basis for an individual statement of energy
costs. With new rates oriented to actual requirements, energy
suppliers create incentives for customers to take measures which
reduce consumption. The load shedding capabilities of a home control
solution combined with the energy monitoring system can produce
substantial savings in a very short amount of time

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company Selects IBM

2011-06-12T10:07:00.001-07:00

One of the nation's nationally recognized premier community banks, has
selected IBM systems to power a new backup-and-recovery solution.

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company began in Louisville's stockyard
district more than 100 years ago and recently expanded to Indianapolis
and Cincinnati.

"The backup and recovery system installed by IBM and IBM Business
Partner Software Information Systems, is providing greater reliability
and has improved our operational efficiency," said Jim Condra, Stock
Yards chief information officer. "We chose to replace our
Hewlett-Packard servers and storage systems with IBM hardware largely
because of the expertise of the IBM and SIS team that helped us."

The backup and recovery solution is based on IBM System x3650 servers,
a storage area network (SAN) based on IBM System Storage EXP3000
expansion units, and VMware virtualization software.

Software Information Systems (SIS), an IBM Premier Business Partner,
worked closely with IBM and managed the solution installation,
configuration and associated training.

"IBM provided Stock Yards Bank & Trust with a customized
backup-and-recovery solution that fit their budget and provides an
easy-to-use solution that reduces administrative costs and energy
use," said Jeannette Browning, IBM client representative.

Microsoft Web Technologies Unveiled

2011-06-12T10:06:00.005-07:00

Today at MIX09, Microsoft Corp. announced a set of platform
investments to help companies more efficiently and affordably engage
with their customers through a rich, interactive presence on the Web.
This includes the release of Microsoft Silverlight 3 Beta and
Expression Blend 3 Preview, and continued progress in the cloud with
updates to the Azure Services Platform. The company also pointed to
strong momentum in platform adoption and demonstrated a number of
solutions from key partners including Netflix Inc., Bondi Digital
Publishing, StackOverflow.com and KEXP. In addition, building on the
success of Silverlight during the Beijing Games, NBC Universal has
again chosen Silverlight to deliver the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter
Games on its official Web site, NBCOlympics.com.

The Business Imperative of a Return on Experience
Organizations that create more intuitive, more engaging experiences on
the Web are able to reduce costs and increase sales. Their visitors
find the information they want faster, their customers make fewer
calls to support help desks, and the number of impulse purchases made
by customers generated grows dramatically. The integrated and
interoperable offerings from Microsoft, composed of software and
services for desktop, datacenters and the cloud, help organizations
deliver richer, more compelling experiences that they require both in
and out of the browser, and give them enhanced "return on experience"
that the current economic climate demands.

Silverlight 3 Beta Released
Silverlight 3 empowers Web developers and designers to build the best
experiences for their customers through the creation of cutting-edge
Web applications. Silverlight 3 helps rich Internet application (RIA)
developers work faster with new graphics, animation and 3-D features,
and more than 60 controls. Silverlight 3 also ushers in a new
generation of high-quality and high-definition video experiences with
true high-definition video in full-screen mode, with stutter-free live
and on-demand video. Silverlight 3 also gives users more video format
choices than ever before, including H.264, along with enhancements
such as deep linking, to improve navigation in Silverlight content and
automate search engine optimization (SEO) tasks. Finally, Silverlight
3 enables developers to create lightweight Web application experiences
that can exist outside the browser. This enables Web sites to deliver
more persistent relationships with their customers.

SAPPHIRE steps up with new Vapor-X Series

2011-06-12T10:06:00.003-07:00

SAPPHIRE Technology is now introducing its new Vapor-X Series of
graphics cards to market with new versions of the HD 4870 and HD 4850.
Built on SAPPHIRE original design PCBs these new models will bring the
benefits of Vapor-X cooling - quieter and more efficient cooling - to
a wider range of users. A new distinctive cooler design makes the
Vapor-X Series stand out in looks as well as performance.

The SAPPHIRE HD 4870 Vapor-X Edition offers for the first time a
choice of 2GB or 1GB of DDR5 memory and runs with clock speeds of 750
MHz core and 900 MHz memory. The SAPPHIRE HD 4850 Vapor-X Edition has
512MB of GDDR3 and clocks of 625 MHZ core and 993 MHz memory. Both
models feature high specification solid capacitors and SAPPHIRE
'Diamond Black' heatsink chokes for reliable operation. An HDMI
connector is provided on the rear bracket, as well as DVI and VGA
giving the maximum versatility in connecting to monitor or flat panel
displays. Two simultaneous displays are supported.

NVIDIA PhysX technology SDK available for registered

2011-06-12T10:06:00.001-07:00

NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has been approved as a
third party tools solution provider for the Wii console. As a result,
the NVIDIA PhysX technology SDK is now available to registered Wii
developers.

"Nintendo has reshaped the home entertainment and video game market
with the success of the Wii console. Adding a PhysX SDK for Wii is key
to our cross-platform strategy and integral to the business model for
our licensed game developers and publishers," said Tony Tamasi, senior
vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA. "With NVIDIA PhysX
technology, developers can easily author more realistic game
environments for the evolving demands of a broad class of Wii gamers."

The NVIDIA PhysX software development kit (SDK) consists of a
full-featured API and robust physics engine, designed to give
developers, animators, level designers, and artists unprecedented
creative control over character and object physical interactions by
allowing them to author scalable physics in real time.

The PhysX SDK for the Wii console, and all major gaming platforms, are
available for license directly from NVIDIA. For more information on
licensing PhysX SDKs or NVIDIA PhysX technology,

WorldWide Telescope is Now a Web App

2011-06-12T10:05:00.005-07:00

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software
environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual
telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and
space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the
universe.WWT is a single rich application portal that blends terabytes
of images, information, and stories from multiple sources over the
Internet into a seamless, immersive, rich media experience. Kids of
all ages will feel empowered to explore and understand the universe
with its simple and powerful user interface.

WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft® high performance
Visual Experience Engine™ and allows seamless panning and zooming
around the night sky, planets, and image environments. View the sky
from multiple wavelengths: See the x-ray view of the sky and zoom into
bright radiation clouds, and then crossfade into the visible light
view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a
thousand years ago. Switch to the Hydrogen Alpha view to see the
distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud
structures lit up by the high energy radiation coming from nearby
stars in the Milky Way. These are just two of many different ways to
reveal the hidden structures in the universe with the WorldWide
Telescope. Seamlessly pan and zoom from aerial views of the Moon and
selected planets, as well as see their precise positions in the sky
from any location on Earth and any time in the past or future with the
Microsoft Visual Experience Engine.

Video Game Industry faces recession

2011-06-12T10:05:00.003-07:00

The video game industry continued to defy the recession in February,
posting double-digit year-over-year growth with Nintendo Co.'s popular
Wii gaming system leading the way.

U.S. retail sales did not grow as quickly versus the year-ago period
as they did in January. But revenue from video game hardware still
climbed 11 percent to $532.7 million from $481.4 million, according to
market researcher NPD Group. Americans bought 753,000 units of
Nintendo's Wii, the best-selling console. The handheld Nintendo DS,
which sold 588,000 units, came in second.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 391,000 units, up 53 percent from a year
earlier, while Sony's PlayStation 3 sold 276,000 units.
Nintendo also had the best-selling game in February with its Wii Fit,
an exercise game that sold 644,000 copies. Capcom USA's Street Fighter
IV took the number two and three spots with 446,000 copies for the
Xbox and 403,000 for the Play Station 3.

Overall software sales grew 9 percent to $733.5 million from $673.3 million.

The economic gloom was not completely absent from NPD's report.

"Unit sales increased even more than dollar sales did, reflecting a
slightly lower average retail price for all categories as compared to
last year," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

The average price of video games dropped about 4 percent year-over-year.

New Microsoft browser adds shortcuts,

2011-06-12T10:05:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Corp. released a new version of Internet Explorer Thursday,
adding features meant to speed up common Web surfing tasks and
bringing the browser's security measures in line with those of major
competitors.

The number of browsers has grown to a dizzying array, from Internet
Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, the two most popular, to Apple Inc.'s
Safari, Google Inc.'s Chrome, the Norwegian entrant Opera and others.
Each is using speed, security enhancements and new features to fight
for a share of Web surfers' growing time online. Microsoft remains the
dominant player, but Firefox's influence is growing.

Dean Hachamovitch, the IE group's general manager, said in an
interview Wednesday that the free browser is important to Microsoft
because the company simply wants PC users to have a "great experience
every day" when surfing the Web. For Microsoft, as for Apple and
Google, the browser is one more way to build relationships that could
sway other decisions, like whether to buy a Macintosh or a Windows
computer, or whether to use Google's Gmail instead of Microsoft's
Hotmail.

Google's entry into the market last year also shows the Web search
leader believes owning the browser can help it better understand Web
users' behavior and advertise to them more effectively — an area in
which Microsoft is struggling to catch up.

123456' is world's most common password used

2011-06-12T10:04:00.001-07:00

'123456' is the most common password used by people on the Internet.

Obscenities, names of fast cars and even ncc1701 - the ship number for
Star Trek's Starship Enterprise, have made it to the list of top 500
worst passwords of all time.

Compiled by Whatsmypass.com, the list features passwords most commonly
used by Internet users.

And topping the list of the most common password is 123456, followed
by "password" in second place.

Other popular password choices were first names, repeated letters and
numbers, pop-culture references.

Even batman, bond007 and cocacola made it to the list, reports the Courier Mail.

The website said that almost one out of nine people use at least one
of the passwords mentioned on the list, and one out of every 50 people
use one from the top 20.

In fact, a study commissioned by digital communications agency @www
found that an average adult had as many as 15 passwords to remember.

But 61 per cent of people used the same passwords for as many
different accounts as possible in order to make life easier.

Date for Infinity Blade on the iPhone

2011-06-03T00:37:00.003-07:00

These days full of outputs relevant for those who play on Apple devices. The first game on the list that we can not fail to mention is Infinity Blade, a product of Chair Entertainment and developed by Epic Games for Unreal Engine 3 course entirely in 3D. You can buy it at a price of 4.99 Euro. If you love more puzzles, you will be pleased to learn of the release for your platform of choice for Puzzle Quest 2 and, if you prefer to deal with the zombies, I can report Dead Rising Mobile, which is also already on the App Store.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 - Faster & cheaper

2011-06-03T00:37:00.001-07:00

The little brother of the GTX580 seems to have found his stroke rates to be appear. As already reported PCGH will be the release date on 12.08.2010, after starting at 07.12. the public was presented. The dimensions will depend on where the GTX4XX. As with the monitor ports, two DVI ports and a mini-HDMI port. The nVidia GeForce GTX 570 will have on a PCB with 268 millimeters in length, about the same size as the GeForce GTX 480 or GTX, the 580th. Was not clear to the source with regard to the nVidia TDP. This told you that this would possibly be 225 watts or slightly less. The memory size of 1280MB and the memory bandwidth to take effect. But of the more than 100 MHz memory clock higher profits but the GTX570. The shader units will be based on the GTX480, but at 32 MHz fired faster. The TDP should be below 225 watts, with positive impact on the electricity bill and the environment.

Google launches Android 2.3 "Gingerbread"

2011-06-03T00:36:00.006-07:00

For users, Google Ad still a few interface changes, a new theme, more simple, more colorful notification bar and menus that simplify navigation. Also new is the virtual keyboard has been changed to " enter and edit text faster . " The "keys" have been slightly modified and repositioned. It is also now possible to edit a word that has already been entered completely and replaced by a suggestion from the dictionary. Practice as well as the support of multipoint on the keyboard, which allows pressing Shift + a letter directly to obtain a capital letter, for example. Copy and paste also makes its revolution in 2.3 drawing very strongly iOS Apple: while that people used to select the function from a menu, a simple long press on a word brings up a selection cursor.

Facebook Gmail Killer

2011-06-03T00:36:00.004-07:00

The wait is spasmodic to the four corners of the web specialist. Weapons of Social Facebook seem sharp, ready to smash Google and its Gmail email service.

Gmail killer. Thus the upper reaches of Facebook have described the Titan Project, which is a plan review of the entire internal messaging system to the site in blue. A project that should include the launch of a real web mail client.

At least according to several rumors appeared on the Net, ready to bet on the main objectives of a conference scheduled for next Monday. At St. Yerba Buena Terrace Regis San Francisco Mark Zuckerberg should really talk about messaging, some not exactly the strong point of the platform in blue.

While Google remains anxious about the fate of his e-mail service, the same Facebook has announced the opening of a new data center in Rutherford, North Carolina. A structure ready within 18 months, that will work - according to a press release - about 40 people. An investment necessary given the growing popularity of social networks, and suggests that in Palo Alto provide a significant growth of their computing needs.

The company's Mark Zuckerberg has thus paid a total of $ 450 million for the construction of a new data center, stressing that this will use eco-friendly energy. In a move that should make people happy Greenpeace activists, already scagliatisi against the CEO of Facebook for managing data center energy in Oregon.

Facebook's lawyers, meanwhile, are engaged in a legal fight against Phoenix Media / Communications Group, a U.S. company that controls the Boston Phoenix newspaper. Were infringed two patents in blue for managing online events. In reality, the site in blue is a counter, the same company after the Stars and Stripes had contacted his lawyers for a suspected violation of another patent. The technology stolen from Facebook would be on the implementation of a page or profile.

Facebook developers selling user IDs

2011-06-03T00:36:00.002-07:00

Last week there was a news that some of the developer from the Facebok are selling the User IDs to the advertisers and data brokers. Now the Facebook caught then developer who has been involved in the selling of the User IDs and the contact list.

This is discovered by the Facebook while trying to Fix the bug in browser that allow the user ID to be shared without notifying the user. The data of the user are revealed to the broker and that information are used for making ads on Web. The developer is caught and banned for more then six month and will be held for more action according to network policy.

But this news revealed the security of the user on the Facebook. The user is not secure on the Facebook. The Facebook itself revealed that low technical demands of security mean that some browsers user IDs are filtered. This is also reported that some of the developer who all are creating the application for the network are also involved in the selling of then User Data.

Facebook is now stating that no User data misused and transfer of user IDs do not provide access to private data. Facebook is now more concerned about the security and the data of the User. It is been expected that now the security of the Facebook.

Facebook yet not revealed the name of the developer who are involved and punished for this issue. Facebook just said that there were more then dozens developer involved in this selling of the User information.

Mozilla delays Firefox 4 until 2011

2011-06-03T00:36:00.000-07:00

Firefox 4.0 sled 2011. Mozilla has revised the roadmap of the new version of the open source browser, initially expected later this year. "The release candidate is now expected in early 2011, with the final build coming soon," said a representative from Mozilla. The updated roadmap is available at this address. Firefox 4 is currently in Beta 6 and in the past weeks we had already reported the hitches encountered by Mozilla ( Firefox 4, the development is slowing down. The bug list is long ). The foundation has even eliminated some features to meet deadlines, but the "sacrifice" it did not do anything ( Firefox 4.0 does not lose the pieces to be late).

AVerMedia sells its first multimedia network gateway

2011-06-03T00:35:00.003-07:00

AVerMedia has announced the immediate availability of its multimedia gateway connected AVerLife ExtremeVision. This includes the home network through its Gigabit Ethernet port and can accommodate external USB drives (FAT 32/NTFS/EXT 3) on its two USB 2.0 ports on its e-Sata port. According to the wiring diagram provided by AVerMedia, it appears that a third module plugs into your USB port that the gateway connects the wireless AVerLife ExtremeVision has video outputs HDMI, composite and component as well as an optical output to connect an amp.

Oracle makes cloud-capable office suite

2011-06-03T00:35:00.001-07:00

Despite some disagreements about office software provider Oracle will start the IT now a new initiative and makes the SaaS sector, Microsoft and Google competition. With the new Office Suite Oracle Cloud Office does Oracle CEO Larry Ellison against Microsoft's SaaS offering Office 365 and against Google Docs. Is sufficient for operating a Web browser, the programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations running on a server. The cloud-enabled suite goes back to the Sun acquisition, the predecessor was called Star Office. Cloud Office has however been re-programmed in Java, enabling customers to link other software via API.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

2011-05-30T09:52:00.002-07:00

Since the last big announcement by Blizzard, fans of hack & slash speak more than Diablo III. It is true that the series is at the root of its kind, not talking about no "diablo-like" and that the protected by Blizzard which is already very impressive, but it seems no question of an exit before several months so why not focus on games coming out today? Author of very nice of Sacred that four years ago Ascaron actually returned to the front of the stage with a series simply entitled Sacred 2: an opportunity to forget Blizzard few hours?

While retaining the action and nervousness style Diablo, Sacred first name had a competitive edge by increasing significantly the richness of the universe. The world Ancaria is much larger than other securities offering of its kind, the quests are more numerous and all have a touch of "adventure" far from unpleasant. Among Germans Ascaron, no visible change a winning team. Thus, the world Ancaria is still in the program for this second opus, but the developers went even further by enriching their world yet. According to official data, we can indeed count on an area of about 70 square kilometers with over 500 quests to be done and a good sixty dungeons to explore. All of which promise of course a lifetime enormous, but starting from the beginning ...

The creation of character is a little disappointing

Like any good hack & slash self-respecting, part of Sacred 2 began with the creation of his character. Alas, we must admit that this side is, Ascaron is a little pale figure with a rather limited customization of our avatar. We have a choice between two facets of the campaign (shadow and light) and, especially, six classes of characters that are quite different from those proposed in Sacred first name (excluding Seraphino of). These choices must of course to address the game so significantly different specializing instead on the fight melee, weapons of distance or magic ... This selection, we opted for a tutelary deity and adventure can begin! Contrary to what one might believe, moreover, it is not here to pick up where we left Sacred first name. The history of Sacred 2 began actually some 2000 years before the first version.

In the world of Ancaria, Energy T occupies a special place.The powerful substance, including the origin of the magic world, is under the control of high elves for centuries, but a real civil war erupted in the noble people. Other races have the opportunity to attempt to take power on Ancaria and what had to happen happened: Energy T out of control and brings chaos to the world. It is in this context at least tormented the players to intervene, perhaps, prevent the Apocalypse to occur. This is more or less county throughout the game, but not be clear now: the scenario of the game is not what we remember most. The increase is quietly, but not really exciting and it is better to see this story as a way of staking our adventure, a simple thread.

Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse

2011-05-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Logitech VX Nano Mouse
The mouse for laptops is fashionable but generally requires to compromise. But this is not the case for the VX Nano that of all the superlatives. Knob revolutionary microscopic receiver, finishing exceptional ergonomics and of good quality combine to make an object that can not help but be desired.

1. The depth of miniaturization
You are more likely to prefer the laptop to the office even as a main engine. This is understandable because it can be transported everywhere and it occupies less space while also ultimately successful. However ergonomics side, the touchpad is still a second-best. Even if we manage to live with for office and the MP3 playback, it quickly becomes tedious when it comes to surf a little longer or so edit a photo or play. In general, everyone loves a day or the other and obtains a mouse. So we may opt for a standard size but it is of doing harm or a portable model but that requires compromise on ergonomics and functionality. Logitech corrects this with a mouse that combines a small size to ergonomics and the latest innovations.

The Revolutionary adjuster
The wheel is called "Revolution" to its name but its integration into the mouse for laptops VX had not been a frank success. Logitech repeated attempts with the VX Nano for the coup and the test is processed. Remember the principle. The metal wheel, which is a masterpiece of micromechanics in itself, can be used in fashion notches as a traditional model or coasting in this case, the great inertia can quickly scroll through a document a long time as a Web page for example. If switching between the two states is electrically on the desktop mouse, it is mechanical on the mobile version for obvious reasons of miniaturization and consumption. On the VX Nano, just press firmly for a change. And the result is exceptional. With its inertia and its grip, the grip is very easy to use whether in a way or another. Serrated mode, the accuracy is formidable and coasting speed scrolling that can be achieved is phenomenal. To stop, yet just a touch of a finger. Once one has tasted this wheel, it's hard to go back for more traditional. It is also multidirectional but anecdotal because nobody uses this function.