Legit Reviews News History
Korea To Offer Free Nationwide Mobile Broadcasting in 2006
Free broadcasting services to handheld devices like cell phones may be offered across the country next year after testing later this year in Seoul and the surrounding Kyonggi Province. Now if we can only get something like that going in major US cities! America was first to embrace cell phones, but are slow to move over to other cellular advances!
The service, called terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), enables people on the road to enjoy crystal-clear video, theater-like audio and receive data via handheld devices. In Seoul and its vicinity, mobility-specific broadcasting is likely to start late this year. The Ministry of Information and Communication already issued five mobile broadcast licenses early this month.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 22, 2005 - 01:00 PM
New York City Sues Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile Over Ads
City officials claim that wireless operators make misleading pricing promises in their ads. Deceptive advertising has been something everyone has become used to with cell phones, but at least New York is trying to clean up the system a bit.
New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Thursday said it is suing Nextel, Sprint and T-Mobile over deceptive advertising that it said could mislead consumers. "You can't promise a great deal in the headline and hide the true costs in the fine print," DCA Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said in a statement. "If a cell phone company promises free long distance, consumers should get free long distance - period. While clamoring for competitive consumer attention, these major cell phone companies crossed the clear line between promotional gimmicks and deceptive advertising."
Posted by | Fri, Jul 22, 2005 - 12:54 PM
Mozilla Firefox 2.0/3.0 Roadmap Published
Ben Goodger over at Firefox has posted up a nice little roadmap of Firefox's past and future releases. If you are a Mozilla fan go check it out and see how the progress is going!
We are planning for a Firefox 2.0 and 3.0, but will divide the planned work over (at this point) three major Milestones, 1.5 (September 2005), 2.0 (unscheduled) and 3.0 (unscheduled). All major development work will be done on the Mozilla trunk, and these releases will coincide with Gecko version revs.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 22, 2005 - 07:33 AM
Microsoft unveils Windows Vista (No Longer Longhorn)
Mirosoft announced Friday that it will call its next-generation operating system "Windows Vista." The much-anticipated operating system had formerly been code-named "Longhorn."
Microsoft also unveiled the Windows Vista Web site and said the first beta testing of the system, which will be targeted at developers and IT professionals, will be available by August 3, 2005.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 22, 2005 - 07:25 AM
ATI CrossFire to support Intel 955X chipsets
ATI Technologies has released CrossFire-compatible dual graphics card drivers to support Intel 955X chipsets, according to sources at motherboard makers. Products supporting ATI?s dual-card graphics solution, including motherboards with CrossFire-enabled 955X chipsets, are scheduled to hit the market in August, noted the makers.
First-tier motherboard makers Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology, as well as Intel, are gearing up to introduce new motherboards incorporating a CrossFire-enabled 955x chipset, company sources indicated. In addition, ATI will introduce two chipsets supporting its dual-card graphics solution, the RD400 for the Intel platform and the RD480 for the AMD edition, motherboard makers indicated.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 22, 2005 - 07:22 AM
Gateway Stops Selling Plasma & LCD TV's
The computer maker Gateway confirmed Thursday that it is exiting the business that it entered with much fanfare in late 2002. At the time, Gateway snagged plenty of headlines and attention from rivals when it started selling a plasma TV for $3,000--thousands less than many competitors were charging. The company later added LCD models.
Gateway's merger with Emachines and decision to close its chain of Gateway Country stores had a lot to do with the decision to get out of the television business, said IDC analyst Richard Shim. "They said that a lot of their success with the TVs came from the fact that people could go into the Gateway stores and touch and feel them," Shim said. Even if customers eventually ordered them online, being able to check out the TVs in person was critical to the bulk of sales, he said.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 21, 2005 - 01:16 PM
Rockstar's Sex scenes force 'Grand Theft' re-rating
Bad news for the gaming industry as Take Two Interactive admitted to putting the sex scenes into GTA: San Andreas and the video game industry has changed the rating from Mature to Adult Only. Shares of Take-Two rose 12 cents to close at $27.07 on the Nasdaq, but later dropped $3.07, or 11.3 percent, in after-hours activity. On Thursday morning the stock is down another $1.30 or 4.8% in the early hours of trading.
Rockstar's parent, Take Two Interactive, admitted for the first time Wednesday that the sex scenes had been built into the retail game -- not just the PC version but also those written for Xbox and PlayStation2 consoles. The video game industry on Wednesday changed to adults-only the rating of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," a best-selling title in which explicit sexual content can be unlocked with an Internet download.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 21, 2005 - 08:23 AM
Microsoft to Buy E-mail Security Provider FrontBridge
Microsoft is buying FrontBridge Technologies, its second acquisition this year of an e-mail anti-virus protection provider.
FrontBridge provides an outsourcing service that allows companies to have their e-mail and instant messaging scanned before it reaches internal corporate networks. FrontBridge's subscription service also allows companies to back up their messages and comply with regulations.
Posted by | Wed, Jul 20, 2005 - 02:43 PM
Super-speed broadband seen coming in 2006
Broadband Internet access via TV cables can reach 100 Megabits per second as early as next year, 50 times faster than the average broadband speeds now offered to cable TV homes, a Finnish firm said on Wednesday. It is looking like broadband is getting faster, but so are the needs of consumers.
Teleste, whose rivals include big U.S. firms Scientific Atlanta and Cisco Systems Inc., said it would early next year bring to the market its Ethernet to the Home product which will give consumers access to 100Mb/s speed.
?Based on our research 30 Megabits per second is the absolute minimum in future homes. Just one TV program would take 10-20 Megabits per second of this alone. So, very fast we would reach a need for 30 Megabits, and also for 50 Megabits per second,? Pekka Rissanen, a Teleste executive told a news conference.
Posted by | Wed, Jul 20, 2005 - 08:13 AM
Buggy FireFox 1.0.5 Prompts Release of FireFox 1.0.6 beta
The open-source Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client will be updated for the second time in a week because of code changes that have unintentionally stopped some third-party extensions from functioning correctly. This means Firefox 1.0.6 will be rushed out to replace version 1.0.5 that just came out less than a week ago. Boy oh boy firefox has had a rough couple months recently.
We are getting ready to release Firefox 1.0.6, Thunderbird 1.0.6, and Mozilla Suite 1.7.10 to address some API issues in the Firefox and Thunderbird 1.0.5 releases, and we want to gather feedback on extension compatibility. There is a very real chance that some of the general security improvements may impact a number of extensions that worked with 1.0.4 and earlier, and we want to identify and address as many of these as possible before we release 1.0.6.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 19, 2005 - 02:39 PM
Infineon CEO Andreas von Zitzewitz Steps Down
Evidence that a senior executive with German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG may have taken kick-backs as part of a sports sponsorship deal has hardened up. This is bad news for France's Le Mans car race and Formula One team Jordan-Honda as Infineon has now suspended all motorsports sponsorships. Funny because I just saw a Le Mans car race on the Speed Channel and saw the Infineon banner on the track... Bummer people have to be paid off to sponsor events.
Infineon's chief operating officer Andreas von Zitzewitz was forced to stand down on the weekend amid corruption allegations, with the company saying Monday it had launched an investigation into whether to make a claim for compensation. Munich-based Infineon, Europe's biggest semiconductor maker, announced on the weekend that Andreas von Zitzewitz had resigned in the wake of allegations concerning payments of EUR 259,000 being made for motorsport sponsorship.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 19, 2005 - 02:23 PM
Kingston's USB Flash Drives Become "Smart" with Migo
For those of you who missed the press release in the forums Kingston Technology has released a new USB key flash drive called the DataTraveler II Plus MIGO Edition. This "Smart" flash drive synchronizes your work for easy transition from home to work making sure you have the latest updated copy on your USB key. Expect a full review coming up shortly as we just got ours in over the weekend and are getting used to operating the MIGO software.
"The DataTraveler II Plus -Migo Edition gives you the freedom and security to work just about anywhere and when you return to your PC, it automatically synchronizes your work, keeps versions current and leaves no trace of your personal data behind," continued Kuppinger. With the award-winning Migo software on board, DataTraveler II Plus is the solution for seamlessly turning any Windows-based PC into a personalized workspace, complete with all or part of the following: Microsoft Outlook® email contents, Microsoft Internet Explorer settings, favorites, cookies and history; plus one's files, folders, applications, icons, and more.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 19, 2005 - 11:51 AM
Hynix stops shipping NAND flash to spot market
Hynix Semiconductor announced it stopped supplying NAND flash to the spot market on July 8, amid strong demand from consumer electronics customers, according to market sources. Looks like NAND prices might be going up, but then again almost everything is.
After raising its 2Gbit NAND flash quotes to over US$9 in mid-July, Hynix has now announced that no excess stock would be reserved for the spot market, as the NAND flash producer is seeing growing demand.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 19, 2005 - 08:24 AM
Korea: Mobile Phone Addiction Emerging as New Problem
One out of four Koreans can be categorized as cell phone addicts that need treatment, according to a local consumer research outfit Tuesday. I got a good laughfrom this line right here: "The worst-case scenario is double-addiction involving the Internet and cell phone at the same time."
Marketing Insight said its poll, conducted in March, showed 23.7 percent of 9,836 respondents were obsessive mobile phone users, who refuse to part with the hand-held gadget even for a second. Up to 36.2 percent replied they cannot turn the handset off even when they are supposed to do so like watching a movie or a play in the theater.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 19, 2005 - 08:21 AM
Google Backers Put $16M into Start-up Zazzle
The early venture capital backers of Google have invested $16 million in Zazzle, which customizes postage stamps, clothing and other items. I for one don't see myself buying personalized stamps, but maybe they have something else up their sleeves. Still you have Stamps.com and CafePress.com to compete with, so not too sure how well Zazzle.com will holdup in the long run.
Zazzle, which is partnering with Pitney Bowes Inc. for personalized postage, said it will use the new funding to expand manufacturing operations, beef up its consumer technology and expand its customer base. Rivals include venture capital-funded CafePress.com, which offers similar services and has a deal with Stamps.com to sell customized postage stamps.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 19, 2005 - 08:15 AM
Hewlett-Packard to cut 14,500 jobs
Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday said it will cut 14,500 jobs, about 10 percent of its full-time staff, as part of a restructuring plan designed to save $1.9 billion annually and boost business performance. Looks like a bunch of HP staff is about to get the boot, because I know that 14,500 people are notgoing to take the voluntary retirement program.
The job cuts will occur over the next six quarters, the Palo Alto-based company said. Most of the job cuts will come in support functions ? such as information technology, human resources and finance ? HP also said that as of January 2006, it will freeze the pension and retiree medical-program benefits of current employees who do not meet defined criteria based on age and years of company service.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 19, 2005 - 08:08 AM
Verizon Wireless to sell Electronic Arts games
Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, will sell video games from Electronic Arts Inc. to its customers in coming weeks, the companies said on Monday. This should be an interesting move and I know a few people at EA Sport and i wish them the best of luck.
Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc, said it would provide games including Madden NFL 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NBA Live 06 to customers of its VCast high-speed data service first launched in February.
Posted by | Mon, Jul 18, 2005 - 07:48 AM
Corrupted PCs find new home in the Dumpster
When I read this CNET News article about consumers throwing away their
PC instead of fixing it I didn't even flinch. Americans are used
to consumable goods and it looks like the low prices on new PC's is
making people just throw out their old PC's that have a virus or
spyware on it. As a Biologist I frown on the practice because 99%
of all PC hardware from a pre-2004 was made with lead in process.
Not good for our landfills by any means. If you throw away your
PC please remember that it is ILLEGAL to just throw on in the trash due
to environmental risks. HP has a great program to recycle PC's at a low cost.
68 percent said they had had computer trouble in the last year consistent with the problems caused by spyware or adware, though 60 percent of those were unsure of the problems' origins. Twenty percent of those who tried to fix the problem said it had not been solved; among those who spent money seeking a remedy, the average outlay was $129. By comparison, it is possible to buy a new computer, including a monitor, for less than $500.
Posted by | Sun, Jul 17, 2005 - 07:29 PM
AMD sales flat, profit falls from '04
Well Duh, their cheapest Dual core processor is twice as expensive as Intel's.....their FX-57 is not really much better than the FX-55 it was supposed to replace and doesn't O/C very well..... and their whole line has become ridiculously expensive.....but they are the best processors on the market right now.
Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday beat analysts' estimates for its second-quarter results thanks to strong demand for personal computer chips.
The Sunnyvale company reported a profit of $11.3 million, or 3 cents a share, for the quarter ended June 26, down from $32.2 million, or 9 cents a share a year earlier. Analysts had expected a loss of 6 cents, according to Thomson First Call
Revenues were flat at $1.26 billion vs. the same number a year ago. Analysts had expected $1.22 billion in sales.
The company's results were dragged down by a $90 million operating loss for AMD's 60 percent share of Spansion, a flash memory joint venture with Fujitsu. In April, AMD said it would sell most of its share in Spansion in an initial public offering. Fierce competition with Intel in flash memory chips for cell phones is hurting the company.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 15, 2005 - 02:58 PM
The Next-Generation Disc: What Should It Be?
Remember when dual layer DVDs was the next big thing? whatever happened to that?
No one wants to back the losing team. And today's consumers are savvy enough to know they don't want to be caught anywhere near the quagmire that is the turf war between competing next-generation optical disc formats Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD. One of these formats will replace the current DVD standard for delivery of packaged entertainment, including video and games. (For more on the battle between Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, see my February column.)
Consumers want to go with the winning standard, but they also want other things from the successor to DVD. The Blu-ray Disc Association is touting a new study it commissioned to gauge consumers' attitudes about the next-generation disc format, and the results shed light on aspects of consumer thinking about the future consumption of entertainment. The Blu-ray Disc Association--which includes the likes of Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, and Sony--released the results of the independent study in early July.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 15, 2005 - 08:26 AM
Dell Closes Longtime Customer Message Boards
I bought a Dell 2005FPW a couple of months ago, had some issues with it and tried really hard to work with people who couldn't speak or understand English for several hours rtrying to RMA the monitor, should have been a 5 minute process. Customer service has become atrocious in this country, with outsourcing being all the rave, the consumer (you and me) are being bent over the dek by companies trying to save a nickel.....funny we don't see any of that savings.
Dell customer service has gotten to be horrible, so this really is no surprise.
The closure of Dell's popular Customer Care message boards last week has some Dell users fuming that the company, once the darling of PC buyers for the quality of its service, is now whittling that quality down.
Dell says it shut down most of its nontechnical message boards on July 8 in order to streamline service to customers seeking after-purchase help. However, some users of Customer Care--a collection of about six message boards that have provided friendly moderated forums for canceling orders and checking on rebates, among other after-purchase concerns, since 1997--are crying foul.
"Home customers are now left with no domestic support alternative," complains Mark Kelm, an IT professional who says the forums helped him order hundreds of Dell desktops and servers over the years for his publishing house. "I'm saddened that new Dell customers will not be able to take advantage of the top-notch support that longtime Dell forum moderators provided to literally thousands of customers and potential customers each year."
Posted by | Fri, Jul 15, 2005 - 08:22 AM
Butane Fuel Cell to Hit Market in 2007
Samsung SDI will commercialize a new fuel cell capable of using retail butane gas to generate power for portable electric and electronic devices by 2007. The butane fuel cells will power an average notebook 20 hours! No wonder the portable fuel cell market is forecast for $1.2 billion by 2010.
Samsung has developed a fuel cell that can generate 100 watts of electricity for five successive hours with liquefied butane contained in the 220 gram gas cartridge generally used for portable gas cookers. With the environmentally friendly butane-based fuel cell, users can run their notebook PCs, which generally consume 20 watt of electricity, for more than 20 hours, and portable color TVs, that consume 60 watts, for over eight hours, the company said.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 15, 2005 - 08:16 AM
MSI launches 64-bit AMD Turion Mega Book S270
Micro-Star International (MSI) yesterday announced the availability of the Mega Book S270, a wide-screen notebook that supports 64-bit AMD Turion 64 mobile technology. The Mega Book S270 will come in tow configurations, priced at US$1,499 and US$1,252. With a slim profile and weighting just about 4.5 pounds this notebook looks to be a winner for AMD fans.
The $1,499 Mega Book S270-W019TC features an AMD Turion 64 1.6GHz CPU, a wide-screen 12.1-inch display, 512MB of DDR333 memory (upgradeable to 2GB), an 80GB HDD, three USB ports and a built-in SD/MS/MMC three-in-one card reader.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 15, 2005 - 08:08 AM
ATI CATALYST 5.7 Released
After the making the biggest driver changes in years, ATI is back again with CATALYST 5.7 drivers. The drivers are a tad over 25MB and have a 1080p display support option for those of you who were waiting on a fix! Most performance gains on these drivers are at 1600x1200 with AA & AF enabled, so if you run a high rez monitor you really need to download these drivers.
The resulting performance gains are most apparent in high resolution, everything on modes, when running applications that use a significant amount of graphics memory. Examples include:
5-15% gains in 3DMark05 on some products
20-60% gain in Far Cry Regulator across multiple settings
25-60% gains in Half-Life 2 at 1600x1200 4xAA 8xAF
40-60% gains in UT2004 at 1600x1200 6xAA 16xAF
50-100% improvement in Comanche4 at 1600x1200 6xAA 16xAF
50-200% gains in certain ShaderMark tests at high resolution
Feature Fun:
Catalyst? Control Center Un-install Option
1080p Display Support Option
Posted by | Thu, Jul 14, 2005 - 01:35 PM
Intel Readying Second Line Of Dual-Core Desktop CPUs
Intel is on track to release a second family of desktop processors using the technology in early 2006, according to a new road map. This is good news for all PC users as Intel is going to have a slow 2H of 2005 on the desktop side of things.
The new processors, which are code-named Presler, fit into the roadmap above Intel's first family of desktop dual-core processors, the Pentium D line, which was formally introduced at the end of May. The new Presler parts are designated the models 920, 930, 940 and 950.
"We're on track for delivery of Presler in the first half of 2006, most likely the earlier part of the first half," confirmed Intel spokesman Dan Snyder, in an interview. "It will be the next-generation dual-core processor using multichip packaging technology."
Posted by | Thu, Jul 14, 2005 - 08:22 AM
Hillary Clinton Calls for a Federal Investigation into GTA
US Senator Hillary Clinton has called for a federal investigation into the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) sex scene controversy. This is going to be bad PR for the gaming community. The controversy started when the Hot Coffee mod started going around the internet. Since a consumer has to "MOD" his game to see what the fuss is about I don't believe that Rockstar is in the wrong. I guess now it is up to tax payers to pay the bill to investigate video games. That is money that can be better spent on border security or paying off some war debt.
The senator wants the US Federal Trade Commission to find out who put the explicit material in the game. The US Entertainment Software Rating Board is already investigating GTA maker Rockstar over the matter. Rockstar has denied that it included the graphic content in San Andreas and has instead accused hackers of altering the code.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 14, 2005 - 08:14 AM
DDR400 Module Prices Increase for the 1st Time in 6 Months
It seems that the bottom has finally been found on DDR1 modules as contract prices increase for the first time in 2005 for certain modules. Kingston raised up prices at the end of last week right when rumors of supply shortages started off in the DRAM market. Kingmax shortly followed suit early this week increasing their pricing due to "tight DRAM supply", but doesn't come as a shock following the previous week supply rumors.
It almost makes me wonder if DDR1 prices will continue to rise the rest of the year. More and more focus is being put into the NAND/Flash chips and with DDR2 production becoming larger by the day and toss in the supply/demand factor for DDR1 we might see ever climbing DDR1 pricing. This will force the market to adopt DDR2 and begin to phase out DDR1.
DRAM module prices had been falling since the beginning of the year, and only since the first half of this month has the price started rebounding. The average price of 512MB DDR and 256MB DDR DIMMs edged up to US$44.3 and US$22 this month, according to figures gathered from DRAMeXchange.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 14, 2005 - 04:42 AM
Morgan Stanley promotes Taiwan DRAM-maker stock shares
With expectations of higher spot and contract prices in the third quarter, the US investment bank Morgan Stanley said investors could buy more shares of Taiwan's dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip makers. Looks like the low memory module prices that we are seeing on the market are likely to go up a good percentage if DRAM contract prices go up 5%.
In a report released yesterday, Morgan Stanley suggested investors invest in Nanya Technology Corp, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp and Winbond Electronics Corp. "We expect 256 megabit DRAM spot pricing to reach US$3 soon from about US$2.5 currently on improved seasonal demand," Morgan Stanley analyst Frank Wang said. The DRAM contract prices this month are expected to increase by 3 to 5 percent and the price hike trend should continue next month and in September, Wang said.
Posted by | Wed, Jul 13, 2005 - 11:17 PM
Digital TV switch in 2009?
Politicians want to ban the sale of analog TVs soon--and set a firm
date for all-digital broadcasts. Under current law, analog television
would be cut off on Dec. 31, 2006 and analog signals would stop in
2008. Sadly this doesn't really impact the rich as most can
afford a new TV, but for lower income citizens this will come as a
major blow when their TV's wont work and they can't afford to run to
Wal-Mart and buy a new one.
the U.S. Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is readying legislation expected this year that would require all American televisions to run on digital signals by the end of 2008. That would free up the analog, or 700 MHz, spectrum for other uses such as broadband services and communications for emergency workers.
Posted by | Wed, Jul 13, 2005 - 08:12 AM
Nvidia 6600 LE series graphics cards said to be US$60-70
How does a pair of nVIDIA 6600
LE's and an SLI motherboard for less than $200 sound? The only downside is that the card
only has 4 pixel pipelines compared to the standard 6600's eight.
Although the pipelines are cut in half it will be interested to see how
the sub $200 mobo/SLI card bundle sells to consumers in Q4 2005.
Nvidia will introduce its 6600 LE series SLI (Scalable Link Interface)-supporting graphics processing unit (GPU) in early August, and the FOB (free on board) price of 6600 LE graphics cards is expected to be US$60-70, according to sources at graphics card makers.
The price of a complete 6600 LE SLI solution, including an SLI-ready motherboard and two 6600 LE graphics card, will be about US$200, the sources noted, adding that second-tier motherboard makers are gearing up to target the segment.
Posted by | Wed, Jul 13, 2005 - 08:05 AM
Hacker: U.S. defense sites poorly secured
A British hacker facing possible extradition to the United States says poor security was a major factor in his ability to have wandered through the IT systems of some key defense establishments.
Gary McKinnon, who is accused of hacking and causing damage to federal defense systems, also said that his actions, far from intending to cause harm, all started as an innocent attempt to prove that the U.S. Defense Department knows of the existence of extraterrestrials.
In an interview with ZDNet UK, McKinnon, who is out on bail pending an extradition hearing later in July, said that he was "frightened" to find U.S. defense systems were open to "people from all over the world."
Posted by | Wed, Jul 13, 2005 - 08:00 AM
ATI's Crossfire to arrive in August
I've already been contacted by a couple of companies who have boards ready to go......now I just need the ATI "Master"card so I can actually use Crossfire.
Boards are getting readied, ATI is working on drivers and trying to produce enough master graphic cards and slowly but surely is getting ready to launch its answer to SLI. Yes it?s almost a year late, but still ATI can offer many things that Nvidia failed to offer with its implementation.
Nvidia offers stable drivers that will work in most of the games, is getting toward release 80 drivers and has the fastest SLI platform powered with two 7800GTX cards. Nvidia is catching up on some of the ideas as ATI has introduced some very interesting features and ways of rendering.
Posted by | Wed, Jul 13, 2005 - 07:57 AM
Memory makers still not bullish on DDR2
Despite the penetration rate of DDR2 growing 11 percentage points through the first half of 2005, a conservative outlook for further growth had pushed memory makers into delaying their DDR2 volume production schedules.
Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) only expects to start volume production of DDR2 at the end of the third quarter, a delay of two months from its original schedule, according to company president Brain Shieh.
PSC estimates its allocated capacity ratio of DDR2 to DDR will be split evenly in the fourth quarter of this year, but the company still regards DDR as its production focus, Shieh added. The company will continue to follow this roadmap in order to fulfill strong demand from the spot market.
ProMOS Technologies forecasts that DDR2 will only rise to the mainstream in the first quarter of 2006. The company will start its first pilot run in July and start volume producing DDR2 memory in the fourth quarter, according to company R&D unit vice president Rebecca Tang.
Nanya Technology has a more optimistic outlook for DDR2 production. The company expects the capacity allocation ratio of DDR2 to DDR to go from 45:55 this quarter to 65:35 in the fourth quarter, according to company public relations spokesperson Amelia Chu.
Posted by | Wed, Jul 13, 2005 - 07:54 AM
Mozilla Foundation Unleashes Firefox 1.0.5
The Mozilla Foundation Tuesday updated its Firefox stand-alone browser to version 1.0.5, fixing several vulnerabilities that have popped up since the last minor upgrade two months ago.
Firefox 1.0.5, which has been in testing for several weeks, can be downloaded from the Mozilla Web site free of charge.
"This is a collection of security bug fixes and stability improvements," said Chris Hofmann, Mozilla's director of engineering. "We're also trying to anticipate some potential security problems with this update by patching vulnerabilities that alone aren't that significant, but might be used together to create an exploit. Most of them involve quite a bit of user interaction."
Posted by | Wed, Jul 13, 2005 - 07:51 AM
Cell phones disabled in New York tunnels
I found it interesting that since the attacks in the UK that cell phone service in New York commuter tunnels has been turned offin order to help safe guard New York City. Two of the four tunnles had their service turned back on late Monday, but the other two still are disabled for safety reasons. Pretty amazing that cell phone service and be enabled and disabled in certain places these days.
Cell phone service to two of the tunnels had been shut down in a miscommunication between the New York Police Department and the Manhattan Transportation Authority, officials said. Service to those two tunnels was restored. No specific reason had been given for the move to stop service Thursday after the London blasts, which killed more than 50 people, but cell phones have been used to trigger bombs in the past.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 12, 2005 - 01:40 AM
ATI's Third Attempt to tape our the R520 worked!
With a little bit of luck on their side The Inq believe that ATI has finally got the R520 core working correctly and is off to production. Better late than never, but just like their article mentioned the nVIDIA G70 Ultra is being held and we all know that nVIDIA is waiting on the R520 to come out before launching their fastest card. Looks like the video card market will heat up again in a couple months!
The first R520 silicon worked at high speeds but only few chips worked, we hear. Wafers are expensive and each costs roughly $3000 and if only 20 chips work from your wafer that will make a production costs of that chip enormously big. You need a better number to make more money.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 12, 2005 - 01:34 AM
Intel Cancels high-end Napa mobile chipset
Intel plans to cancel development on the high-end 955XM chipset for its next-generation mobile platform, codenamed Napa, but beef-up the DDR2-memory support for the two remaining Napa chipsets still on its roadmap, according to sources in the motherboard industry. I was really looking forward to seeing the i955XM chipset, but looks like it will never be mass produced. :(
Intel had originally planned to launch three chipsets for its Napa platform, with the 945PM and 945GM slated to support 2GB of dual-channel DDR2 memory and the high-end 955XM scheduled to support 4GB of memory, sources at motherboard makers noted. However, the chip giant has removed the 955XM from its Napa chipset lineup, and increased the amount of memory supported by the 945PM and 945GM to 4GB, the sources stated.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 12, 2005 - 01:29 AM
LR's Folding Team 38296 Reaches 1 Million Points
Just after midnight the Legit Reviews Folding Team has surpassed the 1 million point mark! In less than a year Team 38296 has folded 7,000 work units that will hopefully aid in cancer, Alzheimer, and Parkinson's disease research. Our readership owns and has access to some of the fastest computers than money can buy and we thank each and every reader that has folded on the team. We are always looking for more team members so we can have more folding power. If you are interested in adding your PC to the 78 computers that are folding for Legit Folding please visit the link below.
Posted by | Mon, Jul 11, 2005 - 10:03 AM
Siemens, Airbus creating system for GSM handsets, computers, PDAs
Siemens and Airbus have worked out a deal that routes GSM cell phones through the planes electronics system and is set to launch in 2006. No word for all you users of TDMA and CDMA phones other than to switch carriers and get a GSM phone!
Siemens AG said Monday it has signed a contract with aircraft maker Airbus SAS to develop technology that would allow passengers to use their mobile phones during flights. The German company will provide technology based on the GSM wireless standard for Airbus to integrate into the electronics systems used on its aircraft, Siemens said. The service is to be launched in 2006.
Posted by | Mon, Jul 11, 2005 - 09:17 AM
Microsoft denies its antispyware favors Claria
When Microsoft first launched their BETA AntiSpyware software many users noted that Claria products were not suggested to be removed. What made things worse is that Microsoft is trying to buy Claria. Very interesting article for those impacted by spyware and Microsoft, which is all of us!
Microsoft is moving to quash claims that its antispyware tool is now giving preferential treatment to adware maker Claria. The beta version of Microsoft AntiSpyware previously recommended that users quarantine several products from Claria, but this changed last week. According to a statement published by Microsoft, the downgrade in threat level merely represents an effort to be "fair and consistent with how Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) handles similar software from other vendors."
Posted by | Mon, Jul 11, 2005 - 09:08 AM
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