Legit Reviews News History
Record firms sue Russian MP3 site - Allofmp3.com
A group of US record labels has started legal action against Russian music download site Allofmp3.com. The lawsuit was filed in New York on behalf of Arista Records, Warner Bros, Capitol and UMG recordings. They are suing Moscow-based Mediaservices, which runs Allofmp3.com and another music site, allTunes.com.
The record labels say the sites are selling songs without permission. But Allofmp3.com argues it is paying royalties to a Russian licensing body. The music industry says that the Russian licensing group does not have the authority to collect and distribute royalties. Allofmp3.com sells albums for about $1 (60p) and charges only a few cents for songs. By contrast, the world's most popular music download service, iTunes, charges $10 (£6) for an album.
Posted by | Thu, Dec 21, 2006 - 06:09 AM
Rumor: Intel to launch pricing campaign in 2Q 2007
Intel will launch a pricing campaign in the second quarter of 2007, with the price for the Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor falling to US$530, according to industry sources. The Q6600 processor is expected to hit the market in January 2007 at US$851 in 1,000-unit quantities, and later on, cutting the price, Intel will try to boost shipments of its multi-core processors, the sources said
The Core 2 Quad Q6400 is expected to be priced at US$400-500 when it hits the market in the third quarter of 2007, when Intel's quad-core are forecasted to double compared to the second quarter, the sources added. Intel will also cut prices for its Core 2 Duo E6700, E6600, E6400, E6300 and E4300 processors in the second quarter, the sources said, adding that the price of the E6700 will be lowered to US$316 from the current US$530. The effect of price cut will be noticed in Intel's shipments in the third quarter, with multi-core processors expected to account for 80% of the chip making giant's shipments, the sources said.
Posted by | Thu, Dec 21, 2006 - 06:07 AM
Hewlett-Packard To Aquire Bitfone
Hewlett-Packard has announced plans to acquire a software company focused on managing mobile devices, strengthening its lineup in its nascent handheld business. H-P said it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Bitfone of Laguna Niguel, Calif., on Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
H-P said the acquisition adds a strategic component to its portfolio of device management software, helping corporate customers manage the various mobile devices used by employees. "Mobile device management is a key component to driving widespread mobile IT deployments," said Dave Rothschild, VP of H-P's handheld business unit. "With the acquisition of Bitfone, H-P adds mobile device management to a comprehensive management suite that already includes servers, desktops and notebooks."
Posted by | Wed, Dec 20, 2006 - 05:49 PM
Intel to launch Core 2 Quad in January
Intel plans to launch the third model of its four-core processor in January, continuing its efforts tostay ahead of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on the next-generation processor family. Intel will launch the Core 2 Quad chip for high-end desktop PCs during the CES trade show in Las Vegas the week of Jan. 8, industry sources said. The new chip follows Intel's launch in November of its quad-core Xeon 5300 for servers and Core 2 Extreme QX6700 for gamers.
Intel plans to target this new chip at a broader segment of mainstream users, though it will still focus on processor-intensive, highly threaded programs such as entertainment, gaming and multimedia activities. In the long run, the company plans to use multicore processors as the engines for its full array of technology platforms in the digital home, office, mobile and enterprise markets.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 20, 2006 - 09:48 AM
Dell CFO stepping down in January
Jim Schneider, Dell's chief financial officer, will step down from his position by the end of January, while the SEC continues to investigate the company's accounting practices. Donald Carty, the former chief executive and chief financial officer of AMR--the parent company of American Airlines--will replace Schneider, Dell announced Tuesday.
Schneider has been with Dell since 1996, becoming CFO in 2000. He joined the company when it was still finding its way among the leaders in the PC market, but oversaw a period of strong growth fueled by direct sales and lean inventory management. In the early part of this decade, when its competitors were struggling to cope with the fallout from the dot-com bust, Dell posted strong growth in both revenue and profits quarter after quarter. But this has not been a good financial year for Dell. The company has missed its earnings targets several times as it copes with a slowdown in demand for desktop PCs.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 20, 2006 - 09:47 AM
Micron - Lexar -- Was it worth the Merger?
The deal was supposed to give Micron a direct link to consumers. By subsuming Lexar Media in an $850 million merger six months ago, Micron acquired one of the top two brands in the market for flash cards. It also got an established retail distribution network -- just what Micron needed as its factories began producing flash memory chips. But now, as the holiday sales season gets into full swing, Lexar looks like the ghost of Christmas past.
Rather than taking Lexar's retail foundation to the next level, Micron appears to be letting its new property sit idle. Lexar's flash media cards and drives, which store data in everything from digital cameras to cell phones, play second fiddle to competing products from Sandisk on many store shelves. And players like Kingston Technology and PNY Technologies are increasingly boosting their retail presence.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 20, 2006 - 09:46 AM
Google, NASA finalize imagery, info deal
Google Inc. and NASA Ames Research Center said Monday that they have finalized an agreement to deliver more of the space agency's imagery and information through the Internet's leading search engine. The collaboration marks another step in a partnership announced 15 months ago when Google unveiled plans to build a 1 million-square-foot campus at the NASA center, located a few miles south of the company's Mountain View headquarters.
Under the arrangement, Ames will feed Google with its weather forecasting information, three-dimensional maps of the moon and Mars, and real-time tracking of the International Space Station and space shuttle flights so the pictures and data are available to anyone with an Internet connection. "This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a statement.
Posted by | Tue, Dec 19, 2006 - 08:27 AM
The Windows Vista zero-day Exploit Is For Sale: $50K
An online criminal has offered to sell software that exploits an unpatched bug in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system, according to security vendor Trend Micro Inc. The code was offered for sale in an underground hacker discussion forum last month, said Raimund Genes, Trend Micro's chief technology officer. The asking price? US$50,000.
If the offer is legitimate it would be the first serious bug reported in Vista since it was released to business customers at the end of November. The consumer version of Vista is set to ship next month. Microsoft is investigating Trend's claims but has "not been contacted directly by any parties about this vulnerability report, nor are we directly involved in the forums in which vulnerabilities are reportedly traded," the company said in a statement.If someone did pay for the code -- called a "zero-day" exploit -- it was purchased at a premium price. According to Genes, a similar exploit for Internet Explorer would command about $5,000. "This was way more," he said. "Maybe the person said, 'This is the first working exploit on Vista, so I can charge a premium.'"
Posted by | Tue, Dec 19, 2006 - 08:25 AM
Sharp starts blue laser diode production
Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp Corp. said on Tuesday it has started the commercial production of blue laser diodes, taking aim at a market with strong growth potential. This is good news as the cost of these laser diodes will decrease over time and bring down the prices on the latest Blu-Ray and HD DVD players.
Sharp in November began volume output of blue laser diodes, used to read and write data on high-definition optical discs, at 150,000 units a month at its existing plant in western Japan, Sharp spokesman Hiroshi Takenami said. The diodes can be used in DVD players based on the Blu-ray format, championed by Sony Corp., as well as competing HD DVD technology, promoted by Toshiba Corp.
Posted by | Tue, Dec 19, 2006 - 08:24 AM
Rumor: TSMC fab shuts down briefly due to power problem
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) yesterday shut down production at its Fab 8 in Hsinchu briefly after a voltage drop, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN). Doesn't sound like it will delay the upcoming chips that we are all waiting for, but it isn't something we like to hear about!
The foundry managed to resume operations at Fab 8 after two hours of repair, but some of the facilities remained idle, the paper said. TSMC stressed that the shut-down would have little impact on its revenues and product delivery, according to EDN.
Posted by | Tue, Dec 19, 2006 - 08:21 AM
Digg continues to battle phony stories
Digg continues to crack down on users who plant phony stories on behalf of marketers, recently deleting a user who posted a story about a company that offered to compensate him.
"I receive two or three offers (from marketers) a week to promote some product or service," Yergaliyev, 19, said in an interview with CNET News.com. "I never do it, but the week JetNumbers asked me I met this girl and I was really happy with life. I wanted to help anybody." JetNumbers provides virtual local phone numbers in more than 30 countries. Nathan Schorr, JetNumbers' business development manager, said that when he first approached Yergaliyev, who is known at Digg as "Supernova17," he mentioned that his company was willing to compensate the teen financially and give him free phone minutes using JetNumbers' system. Schorr said Yergaliyev turned down the cash.
Posted by | Mon, Dec 18, 2006 - 11:08 PM
STS-116 Discovery mission makes history - Lost Camera
The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off on mission STS-116 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006 and made history. It is the first night launch of a shuttle in some 4 years. While the launch marks our return to space it also bring humor thanks to a video clip of Sunita L. Williams losing a camera during a spacewalk. This is priceless!
Posted by | Mon, Dec 18, 2006 - 09:15 AM
Cingular in deal with MySpace.com
Cingular Wireless LLC, the nation's largest cell phone provider, has made a deal with MySpace.com that will allow MySpace users to access their profiles through Cingular phones. Under the agreement, cell phone users will be able to go to their MySpace.com page to edit it, post photos and get messages, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday
The new MySpace Mobile application will cost $2.99 a month plus charges for data usage, Atlanta-based Cingular said. The deal also expands Cingular's work with MySpace.com, which includes letting bands use a service called MySpace Mobile Music to create ringtones.
Posted by | Mon, Dec 18, 2006 - 08:55 AM
NEC says 2 desktop power units caught fire in Japan
NEC Corp. said on Monday there had been two cases of power units inside its Japanese desktop computers catching fire, but no one was injured. Japanese electronic conglomerate NEC said an outside manufacturer provided the power supply unit part that caught fire, but declined to name the supplier.
The desktop in question is its Valuestar model, manufactured in Japan between November 2003 and June 2004. NEC said it had shipped 14,600 units of the model in Japan. Continued use of the desktops could cause a coil inside the power unit to spark and smoke, NEC said. The company said it would replace the power supply unit free of charge.
Posted by | Mon, Dec 18, 2006 - 08:53 AM
A short circuit for cellular E911- Where are you?
It's very likely that when you call 911 from your cell phone in an emergency, the operator on the other end won't automatically know your location. This is despite the fact that most U.S. mobile phone companies have met a Federal Communications Commission mandate to provide location information to 911 operators for millions of wireless subscribers. After years of work, the wireless phone industry is still a long way from full deployment of what is known as enhanced 911 service, or E911.
The FCC estimates that of the 200 million calls made to 911 each year, about a third of them are from callers using a mobile phone. In many communities, over half of 911 calls are placed from cell phones. With more than 220 million wireless subscribers in the nation, it makes sense that a growing number of emergency calls would come from cell phones. Roughly 30 percent of people who bought a cell phone in the past 12 months did so for emergencies, according to Consumer Reports.
Posted by | Mon, Dec 18, 2006 - 08:45 AM
Panasonic develops battery that won't overheat
Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Panasonic) said it has developed a lithium-ion battery that won't overheat even if a short circuit occurs. The new battery includes a heat-resistive insulator inside the battery cell, next to an existing separator that insulates the anode and cathode. If that separator is punctured a short circuit occurs that typically causes the battery to overheat and in some circumstances catch fire. Panasonic said its insulator layer ensures that the battery won't overheat even in the event of a short circuit.
Panasonic's new batteries are made by another company in the Matsushita group, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., and are ready for mass production, said Akira Kadota, a spokesman for Panasonic in Tokyo. The batteries aren't available directly to end users but are sold in bulk to electronics product manufacturers, so Panasonic wouldn't reveal their price. Kadota said they could be more expensive than current cells but could also work out cheaper if large orders are placed. Matsushita Battery Industrial is one of the largest battery makers in Japan.
Posted by | Mon, Dec 18, 2006 - 08:38 AM
F-35 Lightning 2 fighter completes first test flight
he costliest international warplane project, the F-35 Lightning 2 Joint Strike Fighter, safely completed its first test flight on Friday, advancing a $276.5 billion program financed by the United States and eight other countries.
The flight over Fort Worth, Texas, lasted 38 minutes -- about two-thirds the 60 minutes or so the Pentagon's program office had projected earlier this month. The jet climbed to 15,000 feet. Beesley performed a series of maneuvers to test aircraft handling and the operation of the engine and subsystems, Lockheed said. Two F-16s and an F/A-18 served as escorts, it added in a statement. The single-seat, single-engine F-35 is designed to replace a wide range of aging aircraft, including A-10s, F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and British-built Harrier jump-jets.
Posted by | Sun, Dec 17, 2006 - 09:49 AM
Astronauts exit space station for rewiring job
A veteran spacewalker and his rookie partner slipped outside the International Space Station on Saturday to complete a power rewiring job that should leave the outpost ready for the long-delayed addition of European and Japanese laboratories.
The spacewalk, which began at 11:25 p.m. PST was to be the third and final outing of space shuttle Discovery's 12-day flight. NASA managers, however, were toying with the idea of a fourth spacewalk to fix a jammed solar wing panel that had to be folded up to make room for the station's new wings to rotate. After dozens of attempts to automatically fold up the 110-foot-long panel, flight directors gave up with the wing still about halfway out. The panel must be completely folded into a storage box so it can be relocated to another part of the station next year.
Posted by | Sun, Dec 17, 2006 - 09:46 AM
Phone, cable companies to battle in 2007
No doubt the main event for 2007 will be the impending smack-down between the traditional phone and cable TV industries. The regional Bell companies, after losing millions of customers to rival phone services from cable providers in 2006, are just starting to ramp up their risky push into TV.
In advance of the TV push, Verizon and AT&T have battled back with DSL Internet connections priced as low as $15 a month, hopeful of keeping and winning households that can be sold FiOS or U-verse later. The effort has borne some fruit: Although a rapid overall decline in residential phone lines continues, the percentage of remaining homes with phone and DSL service is growing fast, and the Bells are now signing up more first-time broadband users than their cable rivals.
Posted by | Sun, Dec 17, 2006 - 09:44 AM
XFX has a licence to overclock G80
Our friends over on The Inquirer have gained information on factory overclocked GeForce 8 series cards. According to Faud, XFX will be the first card maker to be allowed to overclock their products. The new cards will use the familiar "XXX" suffix. The GeForce 8800GTX XXX Edition will have an increased clock speed of 630MHz core & 2GHz Memory. The standard 8800GTX runs at 575MHz core and 1.9GHz memory.
We learned that the cards will be limited and it will be the part of the XXX pervert edition series. It will be called the 8800 GTX XXX Edition and grab one while you can, but we don’t know anything about availability and pricing and here in Euroland the work hours are long gone so we cannot find this out for you, yet.
Posted by | Sat, Dec 16, 2006 - 08:13 AM
Google to offer domain registration services
Google announced on Thursday evening that a domain name search and registration service will be added to its Google Apps for Your Domain offering. Google will partner with GoDaddy and eNom, two domain registration companies to offer the service.
Registration fees are a nominal $10 per year, which will include private registration to protect personal information and will support .com, .org, .net, .biz, and .info domains. Besides search and registration, the service also includes the creation of an administrative account for managing the site and a configurator to ensure the Google Apps are immediately available on the new site.
Posted by | Fri, Dec 15, 2006 - 10:23 AM
Dell delays third-quarter financial report
Dell delayed its third-quarter financial report Thursday, citing an ongoing probe of its accounting practices. Dell initially postponed its press release detailing third-quarter results in November as a result of the accounting probe, releasing limited information about the results later that month and omitting the customary briefing with analysts.
The investigations are examining certain accounting and financial matters, including issues related to reserves and other balance sheet items that may affect its past financial results, Dell said. The company said the investigations are ongoing and that no determination has been made about whether restatements will be necessary but that it could not predict whether any such restatements could materially affect past results. Dell said it hopes to resolve the issues raised in the investigation and regain compliance with filing regulations as soon as possible.
Posted by | Fri, Dec 15, 2006 - 10:22 AM
Friday Office Humor: Mars:2020:Springtime
I thought I'd share this clip that was sent to me from a reader about technology and Mars. What's funny about it is the fact that NASA does have a bunch of 'Space Junk' floating around, so it's partly true! The animation is using Carrara Studio software.
Posted by | Fri, Dec 15, 2006 - 10:15 AM
Adobe Releases Beta Version of Photoshop CS3
Today, Adobe Systems will make public their beta of Photoshop Creative Suite 3. The big news is that this is the first version to run natively on Intel-based Apple Macs. Anyone who is a Mac fan has probably noticed the sluggish response of Photoshop since Apple switched to Intel processors this year.
"This is an exciting time for the Mac, and Adobe wanted to ease the move to new Intel-based systems with a preview release of Photoshop CS3," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. "We still have some surprises in store, but this beta gives customers an early chance to see the power of another great Photoshop release, optimized and tuned to run natively on the latest hardware and operating systems."
Posted by | Fri, Dec 15, 2006 - 10:13 AM
'Gears of War' wins top spot in game sales
Microsoft's gory Gears of War video game, where soldiers slay alien invaders with chainsaw-mounted rifles, topped U.S. sales charts in November. The title, for the software giant's own Xbox 360, sold 1 million units--the most of any game in November--to ring up sales of $61.5 million, market researcher NPD said Thursday.
The top 10 games, based on sales in November:
- Gears of War (for Xbox 360, published by Microsoft).
- Final Fantasy XII (PlayStation 2, Square Enix).
- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, Nintendo).
- Guitar Hero II (PS2, Activision).
- WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 (PS2, THQ).
- Call of Duty 3 (Xbox 360, Activision).
- Madden NFL 07 (PS2, Electronic Arts).
- Need for Speed: Carbon (PS2, Electronic Arts).
- Nintendogs--Dalmatian & Friends (Nintendo DS, Nintendo).
- Pokemon Ranger (Nintendo DS, Nintendo).
Posted by | Fri, Dec 15, 2006 - 08:40 AM
Nintendo respond to Wii breakages
Nintendo have announced that they will replace any broken straps on the new Wii. There have been a number of reports across the internet of people breaking their TV sets after getting too involved in their gaming. Nintendo have said they will replace all broken straps for free. They also announced that all new Wii's will come with a new "enhanced" strap to circumvent any future mishaps by over enthusiastic gamers.
Games firm Nintendo has said it will replace all broken straps for its Wii console, following customer complaints. The strap is connected to a motion sensitive remote which is used to control the on-screen action.
Posted by | Fri, Dec 15, 2006 - 06:44 AM
Solar Panels using Blueberries?
Scientists in Italy have discovered how to collect solar power from Blueberries. This is no joke. Currently the process isn't as efficient as the current technology, but it is cheaper, and with ever rising fuel bills it might not sound like a bad idea in a while from now.
The panel, as opposed to traditional ones, eliminated completely the use of silicon. The result is a much cheaper product and more efficient to a certain extent because the panels are more flexible and in the near future they could even become transparent sheets.
Posted by | Thu, Dec 14, 2006 - 05:53 PM
Samsung Solid-State Hard Drives Unveiled
I can't wait to get my hands on one (or three) of these drives! Should be a nice boost in data transfer performance for many situations. And hopefully the risk of storage errors will be next to nothing since it will not have any moving parts!
The drives will be introduced in 1.8- and 2.5-inch form factors for notebooks. While streaming performance can't equal that of hard disks, Samsung claims that random-access performance is more important and that (e.g.) Vista users would see a 4x speedup in many key operations. Pricing was not announced.
Posted by | Thu, Dec 14, 2006 - 10:20 AM
XFX Launches 7600 GT Fatal1ty Professional Series - 650MHz
The first collaborative effort by gaming industry leader XFX and the world’s No. 1 ranked gamer, Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel debuted today. The 7600 GT Fatal1ty Professional Series Video Card is touted as quite possibly the fastest 7600 GT card in the world.
The 7600 GT marks the first release in the XFX/Fatal1ty partnership announced earlier this year. “This card proves that teaming XFX technology with the hardcore gamer’s demands results in performance that buyers literally haven’t seen before,” said Eddie Memon, Vice President of XFX. “With Fatal1ty doing his best to challenge our capabilities as a development team, and our efforts to impress and outperform his expectations, the card not only stuns visually, it delivers the goods in efficiency and state-of-the art performance. It is truly for gamers by gamers.” The 7600 GT Fatal1ty Professional Series currently out-clocks Nvidia’s default speed by 14%. Better still, this is a performance overclocked product that features an affordable price that will appeal to all players. Best of all, with input from extreme gamer Fatal1ty, this card is a competition-ready piece of equipment that will satisfy the most serious gamer.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 13, 2006 - 11:03 AM
Skype's free call plan to charge annual fee
Skype, the Internet calling service owned by eBay, said Tuesday that as of January 1 it would begin charging $30 a year for unlimited calls to landline and mobile phones within the United States and Canada. Those calls had been free since last spring.
The new annual fee for unlimited calling, while still nominal compared with other Internet calling plans, is part of a broader strategy by eBay to expand Skype's product offerings and revenue. eBay, the online auction giant, paid $2.5 billion for Skype in October 2005, prompting criticism from some analysts that it had overpaid for a start-up company focused on a different market and technology.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 13, 2006 - 08:17 AM
Apple Sales Are Off-Key on iTunes, But Don't Worry?
Apple shares hit a monthly low Tuesday after a report on slowing song sales in the iTunes Music Store apparently tempered investor enthusiasm, but even the author of the report said Apple shouldn't worry too much.
The report found that iTunes sales steadily increased from the beginning of the survey date to January 2006, but tapered off in the following months. The number of monthly transactions rose from just two per 1,000 households in April 2004 to almost 17 in January 2006. At the same time, the average amount spent per purchase nearly doubled to $6.69. But since January, the number of transactions fell 58%, Forrester found, and the size of each purchase declined 17%, resulting in a 65% drop in monthly iTunes sales.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 13, 2006 - 08:13 AM
Christian Video Game 'Left Behind: Eternal Forces' Causes Controversy
A Christian video game has become the latest battleground in America's "culture" wars, with its maker claiming it promotes prayer while critics charge it carries a message of violent religious intolerance.
The game is set in New York City after millions of Christians have been transported to heaven. Players are charged with recruiting, and converting, an army that will engage in physical and spiritual warfare with the antichrist and his evil followers. An advocacy group "Campaign to Defend the Constitution" -- which monitors right-wing religious activities -- says the game is violently pro-Christian and has petitioned retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to pull it from its shelves.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 13, 2006 - 08:11 AM
Skype releases beta for Windows Mobile smart phones
Skype released the beta version of Skype 2.2, a software client that allows Windows Mobile smart phones to access the company's VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service over Wi-Fi connections. Too bad phones like Cingular's Samsung Blackjack don't have Wi-Fi!
The beta works on 120 different Windows Mobile devices, Skype said. Users in range of a free Wi-Fi network can make free VOIP calls to other Skype customers. Users can also pay via their SkypeIn and SkypeOut accounts to receive and make calls to landline phones. New features in Skype 2.2 for Windows Mobile include an enhanced screen with presence status and notification of events such as missed calls and voicemails. The client also now supports secure connections including HTTPS, HTTPS/SSL, and SOCKS5 proxies.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 13, 2006 - 08:09 AM
Non-Vista-supporting motherboards and video cards are the suck
With Windows Vista up and coming, makers of motherboards and VGA cards are now worried they will incur losses from their inventory of low-end products that do not support Microsoft's new operating system (OS), according to industry sources. The makers are now raising the proportion of shipments to emerging markets and government purchases, worrying that if they are unable to clear their inventories of such low-end non-Vista-supporting motherboards and graphics cards, prices of such products will plummet after the new OS hits the market, the sources said.
The sources pointed out that non-Vista-supporting products, such as the ATI Radeon 9250 and Nvidia MX4000 have seen their prices fall to US$35 and below US$30, respectively. Sources in Taiwan's PC sector said the proportion of products that do not support Vista is currently very low in the market, as Nvidia and AMD-ATI have already reduced the output for such products. They pointed out that almost all PC products in the market now support at least Vista Basic, with little demand for low-end products that do not support Vista at all.
Posted by | Wed, Dec 13, 2006 - 08:07 AM
AMD and IBM Talk About 45NM Chips with Immersion and Ultra Low-K
At the International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) today, IBM and AMD presented papers describing the use of immersion lithography, ultra-low-K interconnect dielectrics, and multiple enhanced transistor strain techniques for application to the 45nm microprocessor process generation. AMD and IBM expect the first 45nm products using immersion lithography and ultra-low-K interconnect dielectrics to be available in mid-2008.
“As the first microprocessor manufacturers to announce the use of immersion lithography and ultra-low-K interconnect dielectrics for the 45nm technology generation, AMD and IBM continue to blaze a trail of innovation in microprocessor process technology,” said Nick Kepler, vice president of logic technology development at AMD. “Immersion lithography will allow us to deliver enhanced microprocessor design definition and manufacturing consistency, further increasing our ability to deliver industry-leading, highly sophisticated products to our customers. Ultra-low-K interconnect dielectrics will further extend our industry-leading microprocessor performance-per-watt ratio for the benefit of all of our customers. This announcement is another proof of IBM and AMD’s successful research and development collaboration.”
Posted by | Tue, Dec 12, 2006 - 03:47 PM
Mod Of The Year 2006
These mods will make you look at your own case and sigh in disgust
The premise is simple - take some of the mods published on the site in the past year and ask the readers, the modding community, to vote on which one is the best. There is some great variation in the mods we've published - from simpler paint and hack mod jobs through to full scratch builds. Each embodies the spirit of modding in a different way, and picking a winner is going to be very hard.
Posted by | Tue, Dec 12, 2006 - 02:23 PM
Micron Technology (Crucial Memory) Buys Avago Tech
Micron Technology has purchased the image-sensor business of privately held Avago Technologies in a deal worth at least $53 million, the memory maker announced Monday
Avago's 90-person imaging team will join Micron, which already makes image sensors used in camera phones and other products. The addition of Avago's expertise will help Micron expand its imaging offerings into automotive, security, consumer electronics and medical applications, the company said
Posted by | Tue, Dec 12, 2006 - 11:04 AM
Red 5 - Online video game studio gets cash infusion
Red 5 Studios, an online video-game developer led by members of the team behind the wildly popular "World of Warcraft" game, said on Monday it has raised $18.5 million in venture capital.
Mark Kern, Red 5's chief executive and former team leader on "World of Warcraft," said his California-based game studio will create original games for online game operators and distributors -- much as Pixar Animation Studios did in the movie world with its animated films such as "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo". Red 5 is already working on a massively multiplayer online game for Webzen Inc. The South Korean company is financing the development of the game, which Webzen will distribute.
Posted by | Tue, Dec 12, 2006 - 11:02 AM
RIM sues Samsung over BlackJack name
Research In Motion is suing Samsung, claiming that the name of the company's new BlackJack smart phone is too similar to that of RIM's own BlackBerry devices. The suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. RIM is seeking an injunction against the sale of the new BlackJack phones. In the complaint, RIM said Samsung's use of the "BlackJack" name "constitutes false designation of origin, unfair competition and trademark dilution."
Samsung launched the BlackJack in early December with a huge marketing campaign; currently, the phone is sold exclusively for Cingular's network. Ironically, the launch coincided with RIM's launch of the BlackBerry Pearl on Cingular's network as well. Until December, T-Mobile had been the exclusive carrier of the Pearl.
Posted by | Tue, Dec 12, 2006 - 10:53 AM
UMC to make AMD RS690 at 80nm, paper says
AMD has selected United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) to produce its next-generation ATI RS690 chipsets at the 80nm node, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN). This will be the first chipset that will be launched since the AMD-ATI merger!
Before its acquisition by AMD, ATI worked with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as its chief partner for 80nm production, the paper said, adding that the selection of UMC for the next-generation RS690 chipsets raises speculations about possible changes in AMD's outsourcing policy.
Posted by | Tue, Dec 12, 2006 - 10:52 AM
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