Legit Reviews News History
G.E.’s Breakthrough on Holographic Storage Means 100 DVDs fit on a Disc
General Electric says it has achieved a breakthrough in digital storage technology that will allow standard-size discs to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs. The storage advance, which G.E. is announcing on Monday, is just a laboratory success at this stage. The new technology must be made to work in products that can be mass-produced at affordable prices.
The promising work by the G.E. researchers is in the field of holographic storage. Holography is an optical process that stores not only three-dimensional images like the ones placed on many credit cards for security purposes, but the 1’s and 0’s of digital data as well. The data is encoded in light patterns that are stored in light-sensitive material. The holograms act like microscopic mirrors that refract light patterns when a laser shines on them, and so each hologram’s recorded data can then be retrieved and deciphered. Holographic storage has the potential to pack data far more densely than conventional optical technology, used in DVDs and the newer, high-capacity Blu-ray discs, in which information is stored as a pattern of laser-etched marks across the surface of a disc. The potential of holographic technology has long been known. The first research papers were published in the early 1960s.
New York Times Technology News
Posted by | Mon, Apr 27, 2009 - 08:20 AM
GM kills Pontiac, cuts 23,000 jobs
General Motors today announced plans to cut 23,000 U.S. jobs by 2011, drop its Pontiac brand and slash 40 percent of its dealer network to try to stay out of bankruptcy. CNNMoney reports that GM also announced an offer to its bondholders to swap $27 billion of the company's unsecured debt for stock.
GM is offering bondholders 225 shares of its stock for every $1,000 it owes the bondholders in principal. The move will greatly dilute the value of GM shares held by current stockholders.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 27, 2009 - 08:18 AM
April 27 News from Around the Web
The Mammoth 20 Terabyte Custom MEGA-NAS Project @ Tweaknews and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
"The Mega-NAS project begins. I did some research on brand name high-capacity storage solutions. It will cost $30 000 - $50 000 for a network storage solution that meets my requirements. That is well beyond my budget. It is up to me to design and build a system capable of meeting my high capacity and processing power requirements."
Posted by | Mon, Apr 27, 2009 - 07:43 AM
OCZ Announces the Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD for Enthusiasts
OCZ Technology recently unveiled the Z-Drive, a PCI-Express based SSD solution designed to meet the stringent demands of enthusiast computing environments and high-end workstations. First debuted at Cebit 2009 in Germany, the Z-Drive is the latest premium solid state storage solution from OCZ.
“It is our goal to deliver tailored SSD solutions for the complete spectrum of high performance applications,” said Eugene Chang, Vice President of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. “Designed for ultra high performance consumers, the Z-Drive takes the SATA bottleneck out of the equation by employing the ultra fast PCI-Express architecture with a RAID controller and four Vertex controllers configured in four-way RAID 0 within an all-in-one product, making this solution ideal for applications that put a premium on both storage performance and maximum capacity.”
Posted by | Sat, Apr 25, 2009 - 08:51 AM
April 24 News from Around the Web
XFX GeForce GTS250 Video Card Review @ motherboards.org and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
The XFX GeForce GTS 250 Core Edition video card is available online for $129.99 off Newegg. For a limited time, you can purchase the card and get Call of Duty World at War as a bonus. The inclusion of a free game makes the purchase price more affordable. At the moment the competition for the GTS 250 is the Radeon HD 4850, making it a decent choice of whether you want PhysX support or DirectX 10.1 support. A lot has been said about rebranding of the GeForce 9800GTX+ to the GTS 250, but you get good performance for a good price and that is the bottom line when considering a new video card. The latest games play well on the card with only small sacrifices in terms of anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering to achieve playable frame rates throughout.
Posted by | Fri, Apr 24, 2009 - 07:33 AM
DFI LANParty online overclocking contest announced - Project Europa
DFI just announced that they will hold the first session of their global online overclocking competition during April to May of 2009. In addition to a handsome sum of money as prize and awards to the top three, the top ten candidates will also be honored as “LANParty certified overclocker”. Overclocking will be done on the Intel Core i7 920 and AMD Phenom II 940, so both AMD and Intel fans will be able to enter.
LANParty is holding a worldwide online OC contest which named "Project Europa". Please see the press release for more details or you can find the event link below: http://lp.lanparty.com.tw/portal/CM/project_europa/
Posted by | Fri, Apr 24, 2009 - 06:07 AM
NVIDIA launching NVISION, the magazine in June 2009
Beginning this June, NVIDIA will be introducing NVISION, the magazine that celebrates and examines the world of digital graphics in entertainment. If you sign up and pay for a year right now you will get your first issue free. Don't get used to it being free though as the year will still cost you $19.97 for 4 issues. Te magazine has 116 pages and almost no ads according to the subscription page. I guess that with NVISION 09 being canceled this was the second best thing, but NVISION 08 seemed like it had promise.
In every dynamically designed issue, we'll showcase the latest visual technology in videogames, film, art, special effects, and more. Published in association with NVIDIA, NVISION will show you how amazing visual effects are created, break news on the next wave of technology, and answer the question What's real and what isn't? Don't miss out!
Posted by | Fri, Apr 24, 2009 - 05:18 AM
Microsoft sales fall for first time in its 23 years
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that declining PC sales hurt revenue, as the software giant reported quarterly sales that fell for the first time in its 23-year history as a public company. The Redmond, Wash.-based company said sales fell 6% from a year earlier to $13.7 billion, missing analysts' expectations of $14.1 billion.
Results included charges totaling 6 cents per share for job cuts and investments that took place in the quarter. Without the charges, Microsoft earned 39 per share, in line with forecasts by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, which typically exclude one-time items. Microsoft said weakness in the global PC market negatively impacted its results. Still, shares of Microsoft rose 4% after hours, as the company performed roughly in-line with expectations. In the previous quarter, results came in well below forecasts, and Microsoft rescinded its prior outlook for 2009.
Posted by | Thu, Apr 23, 2009 - 07:36 PM
Record attempt reaps 217,000 texts in a month, $26K bill
Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of 217,000. For one of the two, that meant an inches-thick itemized bill for $26,000. Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill. "It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send to me," he said Tuesday. He said he "panicked" and called T-Mobile, which told The Associated Press it had credited his account and was investigating the charges.
The two Lancaster-area residents have been practically nonstop texters for about a decade since they attended Berks Technical Institute together. That led Andes to search for the largest monthly text message total he could find posted online: 182,000 sent in 2005 by Deepak Sharma in India. Andes and Klinger were able to set up their phones to send multiple messages. During a February test run they found they could send 6,000 or 7,000 messages on some days, prompting the March messaging marathon.
Posted by | Thu, Apr 23, 2009 - 10:59 AM
April 23 News from Around the Web
Neoseeker published their review of the AMD Phenom II X4 955. Find this and other reviews from around the web by visiting our forums!
"Given that the Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition is AMD's new flagship, I had high expectations about it, and I was far from being deceived... I did not imagine it could step on the Core 2 so easily."
Posted by | Thu, Apr 23, 2009 - 07:30 AM
Obama USB 2.0 Flash Drive Ships With Speeches
Active Media Products today launched a new USB flash drive that commemorates President Barack Obama, and comes pre-loaded with President Obama’s Inaugural Address. The Obama USB drive is a folding-style drive that measures only 1.6 x 0.6 inches when closed. The drive is also waterproof. Packaged in a patriotic retail bubble pack, the 2GB drive retails on Amazon for $8.95.
The new Obama drive is a standard USB 2.0 flash drive that works in any computer. The drive features a custom Obama hologram on the front, making it a unique presidential collector’s item. The drive is immediately available only in 2GB capacity. Other capacities will become available soon. The Obama drive comes preloaded with over 30MB of bonus material including Barrack Obama’s Inaugural Address and his landmark “Race Speech” in MP3 format – a total of nearly one hour of audio, text of several other significant speeches in PDF format, and an official White House Obama photo. The bonus material occupies less than 2% of the drive’s capacity, and can be deleted by the customer if not wanted.
Posted by | Wed, Apr 22, 2009 - 09:03 AM
AMD Honors Earth Day - Launches 40W ACP AMD Opteron EE CPU
Rushing in a new era of power efficiency, AMD today introduced the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron EE processor with AMD’s lowest x86 quad-core server power band. The new 40W ACP processor is designed for very dense data center environments such as those built for cloud computing, web serving, or other highly dense environments. It offers a full suite of virtualization and power management capabilities so customers do not have to compromise on feature sets in order to deploy very low power servers.
“Adding the 40 watt EE power band to the Quad-Core AMD Opteron line-up helps our customers achieve maximum value for their unique data center needs across the board,” said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server Workstation Business, AMD. “The EE processor is ideal for cloud computing environments, which demand both extreme energy efficiency and a balanced system that can handle high transactional demands.”
Posted by | Wed, Apr 22, 2009 - 08:31 AM
Samsung Announces Rugged 2.5" Spinpoint M7 500GB Hard Drive - HM500JI
Samsung recently introduced their new 500-Gigabyte (GB) 2.5-inch hard disk drive with a shock operation tolerance of 400G/2ms. The Spinpoint M7 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive with 250GB per platter features a rugged base and cover design, offering better data protection for road warriors and other mobile laptop users. Global shipments in the United States and Europe began in April with shipments to other regions to follow accordingly.
The Spinpoint M7 is available in 250-, 320-, 400-, 500-GB capacities. A new controller has been adopted to reduce power consumption in seek mode to up to 25 percent over conventional 2.5” drives. In particular, internal test results on PC Mark show an 18 percent improvement in overall performance over 2.5” hard drives. The Spinpoint M7 500GB hard drive is lightweight and durable, featuring a 5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache, native command queuing and a 3.0Gbps SATA interface. The perpendicular magnetic recording technology enables the 500GB drive to store 160,000 digital images, 125 hours of DVD movies, or 60 hours of high definition video images.
Posted by | Wed, Apr 22, 2009 - 08:08 AM
WD Announces TiVo DVR With 1TB Capacity My DVR Expander
Expanding consumers’ TV recording capabilities by hundreds of hours, WD today announced in the U.S. that its My DVR Expander is now available with 1 TB capacity. Consumers can instantly and seamlessly expand their TiVo DVR recording capacity by simply attaching the My DVR Expander to their TiVo DVR. The new TiVo Verified My DVR Expander with 1 TB capacity is available now at select retailers and in the U.S. through WD’s online store. Pricing for the WD My DVR Expander with 1 TB is $199.99 USD.
TiVo Verified compatible with TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs, the new My DVR Expander is capable of storing up to 140 hours of high-definition (HD) television programming based on 1 TB of hard drive storage. The My DVR Expander, which utilizes an eSATA connection, is perfect for consumers who need more room to store the ever-expanding HD entertainment options offered by their service providers.
Posted by | Wed, Apr 22, 2009 - 08:01 AM
AMD Reports First Quarter 2009 Results - Loss of $416 million
AMD reported revenue for first quarter of 2009 of $1.177 billion. First quarter 2009 revenue was flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2008 and decreased 21 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008. This means that AMD lost $416 million, or 66 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. It wasn't as bad as Wall Street projected though, which I guess is a good thing.
“AMD’s sequential microprocessor unit and revenue growth in difficult economic conditions demonstrate we can grow in an environment where customers are looking for maximum value,” said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and CEO. “We delivered on a number of important priorities in the first quarter. We launched GLOBALFOUNDRIES, maintained our cadence of new product and platform introductions, and made solid progress on our restructuring activities. The result is a more nimble AMD, capable of achieving long-term success based on our strengths designing and integrating industry-leading computing and graphics technologies.”
Posted by | Tue, Apr 21, 2009 - 06:35 PM
U.S. fighter jet project breached by hackers
Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The newspaper quoted current and former government officials familiar with the matter as saying the intruders were able to copy and siphon data related to design and electronics systems, making it potentially easier to defend against the plane. I guess it is a good thing that on April 6, 2009 US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the US would buy a total of 2,443 JSFs! If only the companies working on the project would have had secure systems.
Citing people briefed on the matter, it said the intruders entered through vulnerabilities in the networks of two or three of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet. Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor. Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems also have major roles in the project. Lockheed Martin and BAE declined comment, and Northrop referred questions to Lockheed, the paper said. The Journal said Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on the matter, but the paper said the Air Force had begun an investigation.
Posted by | Tue, Apr 21, 2009 - 08:44 AM
Acer, Asustek, MSI see 1Q09 netbook sales fall short of expectations
Taiwan-based netbook vendors saw shipment volumes fall short of their respective goals in the first quarter, according to sources at channel vendors. Although Acer is estimated to have shipped two million Aspire One netbooks in the first quarter, the sources said that sales in the channel were lower. Meanwhile, Asustek's Eee PC sales were only 900,000 units, lower than the expected one million units, while MSI had sales of 200,000 Wind series netbooks, the sources revealed.
The sources pointed out the drop is mainly due to the maturing of key sales regions plus incomplete penetration into emerging markets. To counter the drop, both MSI and Acer have already turned their focuses toward the ultra-thin notebook market, and will reduce their investment in the netbook segment, the sources claimed.
Posted by | Tue, Apr 21, 2009 - 08:42 AM
April 21 News from Around the Web
Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 graphics board cooler review @ Elite Bastards and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
While NVIDIA's reference cooler for their GeForce GTX 200 series of products is pretty respectable in terms of both noise and performance, there's always something better available for anyone willing to shell out for a third-party solution. Arctic Cooling's hefty Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 aims to be that "something better", but can it succeed in making the stock cooling solution look wimpy in terms of performance as well as size?
Posted by | Tue, Apr 21, 2009 - 08:33 AM
OCZ Announces Vertex EX, an SLC-based Solid State Drive Series
OCZ Technology today unveiled OCZ Vertex EX 2.5” Solid State Drives that is designed to meet the stringent demands of server environments and enterprise applications. These new premium offerings are the pinnacle storage option excelling in performance, reliability, and power consumption that offer professionals and enthusiasts an unparalleled computing experience. Initially the SLC-based drives will be available in capacities of 60GB and 120GB, but no word yet on pricing.
“The advantages of SSD’s over traditional hard disc drives including performance, reliability, no cooling requirements, and lower power consumption, are all highly beneficial to enterprise applications and enthusiast consumers looking for the ultimate storage solution,” commented Alex Mei, CMO of the OCZ Technology Group. “The new OCZ Vertex EX is designed to deliver unparalleled performance and reliability, featuring the latest-generation architecture and SATA interface utilizing single-level cell NAND flash memory for unmatched overall system responsiveness and stability for enterprise grade server solutions.”
Posted by | Mon, Apr 20, 2009 - 04:49 PM
Five ASUS VH Series LCD monitors Get certified by EPEAT at the Gold level
Five ASUS VH Series LCD monitors with screen sizes ranging from 20" to 24" have been certified by EPEAT™ at the Gold level, the highest environmental rating possible. EPEAT is an international organization that evaluates PCs based on their environmental attributes. Designed and manufactured in strict adherence to GreenASUS principles, the ASUS VH202T-P, VH222H-P, VH232H-P, VH236H-P and VH242H-P successfully met or exceeded the required criteria and at least 75% of the optional criteria necessary to receive a Gold rating from EPEAT.
This is the result of a company-wide green mindset cultivated by the GreenASUS steering committee led by the Chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc., Jonney Shih. Through GreenASUS, every decision along the design, procurement, manufacturing and service chain is dictated by what produces the greenest outcome—represented by the four 'home runs': Green Design, Green Manufacturing, Green Procurement and Green Services and Marketing. Specific measures pertaining to ASUS VH Series LCD monitors include utilizing new manufacturing techniques to reduce mercury use as well as the use of post-consumer recycled plastic without affecting product performance and reliability.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 20, 2009 - 10:33 AM
OLPC laptop drops AMD for Via
The One Laptop per Child project's XO laptop will switch to a Via processor as part of a general hardware refresh. Generation 1.5 of the XO machine will have the same industrial design as the original model, but will use a Via C7-M processor, John Watlington, OLPC's vice president of hardware development, wrote in a post on Friday. Currently the XO, which is aimed at educational markets in developing countries, uses an AMD Geode processor.
Watlington said the refresh was separate from the 'Gen 2.0' project, in which OLPC will switch to an ARM-based, instead of x86-based, processor. The first of the XO 2.0 laptops will launch in early 2011, Negroponte said. In the XO Generation 1.5 refresh, the memory of the XO will be boosted from 256MB to 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM. Its flash storage will go up from 1GB to 4GB, with an option for 8GB. The Via processor will have a clock range from 400MHz to 1GHz, resulting in power consumption of 1.5W to 5W, Watlington said. It will be integrated into the XO as part of Via's new VX855 chipset, which will also boost the XO's audio and video performance, he added.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 20, 2009 - 07:45 AM
Western Digital Announces RE4-GP 2 TB hard drive - WD2002FYPS
Western Digital today expanded its enterprise family of hard drives to include the next-generation 2 TB capacity, the largest and only 2 TB enterprise-class hard drive shipping today. Combining industry-leading 64 MB cache, dual processors, and increased areal density, WD RE4-GP hard drives yield twice the processing power resulting in as much as 25 percent performance improvement over the previous generation. The WD RE4-GP 2 TB hard drive (model WD2002FYPS) is available from select e-tailers and distributors with an MSRP of $329.00.
The new WD RE4-GP 2 TB hard drive provides enterprise-class reliability for storage-hungry applications, such as cloud-computing infrastructure, large-scale data centers, data archive and tape replacement systems, commercial video surveillance and digital video editing houses, with an energy- and money-saving solution that combats the challenges facing the enterprise IT sector -- limited available drive slots, maximum capacity required, and limited power and budget. Addressing the growing high-capacity enterprise market, WD RE4-GP 2 TB drives are reliability-rated at 1.2 million hours MTBF (mean time before failure) in high duty cycle environments.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 20, 2009 - 07:28 AM
Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion
Information technology company Oracle is buying Sun Microsystems in a cash deal the company valued at $7.4 billion. The deal comes after IBM abandoned its bid to buy the networking equipment maker.
Redwood Shores-based Oracle will buy Sun shares for $9.50 each. The price represents a 42 percent premium to Sun's Friday closing stock price of $6.69. Net of Sun's cash and debt, the transaction is valued at $5.6 billion, Oracle says. IBM had offered to buy Sun for $9.40 per share, but acquisition talks fell apart earlier this month after Sun canceled IBM's exclusive negotiating rights, and IBM withdrew its offer.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 20, 2009 - 07:10 AM
April 20 News from Around the Web
Thecus M3800 Streaming NAS @ High Tech Reviews and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
Today we have the pleasure and I say that with all sincerity, of reviewing the Thecus M3800 Streaming Network Assisted Storage device. What make this unit some much fun to review is the fact that it has some many capabilies that are not normally found in your standard NAS. The M3800 can stream both music and movies and mount ISO files or be used as a file or picture server freeing up space on your computer mounted hard drives. Take a few minute to visit our site and take a look at this interest device.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 20, 2009 - 06:23 AM
OCZ Introduces MiniPCI–Express Solid State Drives
OCZ Technology today unveiled their first miniPCI-Express Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, the affordable flash-based storage option to significantly increase the capacity for netbooks. For on the go computing professionals and students looking for an ideal storage upgrade on their ultra-portable platforms, the OCZ miniPCI-E SSD is the cost effective alternative to traditional standard storage drives as a reliable upgrade on mobile systems.
Offering your notebook the benefits of flash-based technology, The OCZ miniPCI-E delivers the reliability and silent operation of SSDs in a smaller form factor, and will be available in both SATA and PATA interfaces. Notebook upgraders can choose either the SATA version that delivers a fast 110 MB/s read and 51 MB/s write speed, or the PATA upgrade that features a maximum 45MB/sec read and 35MB/sec write speeds. Ideal for energy-efficient mobile computing to extend battery life by lowering power consumption, inproving access time, and providing an alternative to conventional hard disc drives, the OCZ miniPCI-E drive offers not only superior shock resistance but also quiet operation whether at home or on-the-go.
Posted by | Fri, Apr 17, 2009 - 09:37 PM
Pirate Bay defendants found guilty, though no actual files found
A Swedish court on Friday found the four defendants in the high-profile Pirate Bay case guilty, sentencing each to a year in jail. The defendants were also ordered to pay a total of 30 million Swedish kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to copyright holders, among them a number of American media giants. The four men--Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundström--were found guilty of having made 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal file sharing via the Piratebay.org Web site
After a 13-day trial, judge Tomas Norström, plus his assistant and three namndeman (essentially a jury with extended powers), found ample evidence for a guilty verdict, though no actual files are stored on the Web site. As a result of a civil claim filed alongside the criminal case, the four men will have to pay $3.6 million in compensation for lost sales to 17 media companies. Among them are Warner Bros. Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Columbia Pictures Industries, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, and Activision.
Posted by | Fri, Apr 17, 2009 - 09:12 AM
DRAM spot prices up significantly
Taiwan's DRAM chip suppliers have paid much attention to the active transaction in the spot market over the past two days, pinning their hopes on an early recovery. The cash-strapped chipmakers expect the spot price of DDR2 1Gb eTT chips to continue its rally to approach to the cost level of US$1.5, according to industry sources.
The spot price of DDR2 1Gb eTT chips soared over 6% to close at US$1.2 yesterday, following a price increase of 7% on April 15, according to DRAMeXchange. The price continued its rally to US$1.21 as of 2:30 pm (Taiwan time) today. DRAMeXchange has estimated that DDR2 contract prices are likely to rise 15-20% sequentially in the second quarter of 2009.
Posted by | Fri, Apr 17, 2009 - 09:10 AM
DFI Announces LanParty JR 790GX-M3H5 Socket AM3 Motherboard
DFI LANParty will start shipping the first microATX motherboard based on AM3 platform in the end of April, but announced the board this morning. The motherboard is called the LanParty JR 790GX-M3H5 and a dozen pictures of it can be found in our forum for those that want to take a closer look.
Posted by | Fri, Apr 17, 2009 - 09:08 AM
IBM Technology Alliance Announces 28nm Process
In a move that signals a firm and ongoing commitment to advanced semiconductor technology leadership, IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., and STMicroelectronics have defined and are jointly developing a 28-nanometer (nm), high-k metal gate (HKMG), low-power bulk complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology. GLOBALFOUNDRIES sent me an e-mail already this morning that states they plan to accept 28nm designs in 2H10 in Fab 1 in Dresden with production shortly thereafter. Looks like processors are about to get much smaller in the years to come.
Preliminary results working with early access clients and partners indicate that the 28nm technology platform can provide a 40 percent performance improvement and a more than 20 percent reduction in power – all in a chip that is half the size – compared with 45nm technology. The high-k metal gate implementation allows one of the industry’s smallest SRAM cells at 0.120 square microns, with low minimum voltage operation and competitive performance, leakage and stability.
Posted by | Thu, Apr 16, 2009 - 07:40 AM
Hewlett-Packard No. 1 PC vendor in the United States
The first quarter of the year was rough for computer sales, but the growing appeal of lower-priced laptops and netbooks kept demand from sinking even lower. Those low-end models also helped propel Hewlett-Packard into the position of No. 1 vendor in the United States, as the Palo Alto company surpassed Dell in this country for the first time since at least 2001.
HP, which has long been the worldwide leader in PC sales, saw growth in overall shipment volume and improved its share of both the global and U.S. markets. Gartner analysts credited the company's broad portfolio of desktops, laptops and mini-notebooks, which appealed to cash-strapped consumers looking for a bargain, as well as an aggressive distribution network that helped improve sales to business customers. IDC's O'Donnell agreed, while offering another observation: He said his research shows HP has a stronger appeal to younger buyers than Dell. Younger customers may have been more inclined to buy a new laptop despite the recession.
Posted by | Thu, Apr 16, 2009 - 06:50 AM
U.S. PC market shows some resilience amid continuing decline
The PC market shrunk during the first part of 2009, but not as badly as expected. Shipments of PCs during the first quarter were down 7.1 percent from a year ago, to 63.5 million units, according to IDC, which released its Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker on Wednesday. That's an improvement from the 8.2 percent decline that IDC had projected.
And some regions are faring better than others. In the U.S., considered a saturated market for PCs, declines were kept to just 3 percent. Last month, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell told an audience during a speech in China that the worldwide demand for PCs was "steady," and echoed IDC's assessment of U.S. consumers' continuing appetite. But of the top five PC vendors in the U.S., only Dell and Apple saw overall shipment declines when compared to the same quarter a year ago. Apple dipped slightly at 1.2 percent, but Dell's drop was more drastic at 16.2 percent.
Posted by | Thu, Apr 16, 2009 - 06:47 AM
SanDisk may lose ground to Kingston Technology and others
Taiwan's flash memory device manufacturers as well as US-based Kingston Technology are expected to grab a slice of the US NAND flash market now that the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled that certain flash memory products do not infringe SanDisk's US patents, according to industry sources. Many of them have already worked out plans for the US market, the sources added.
In October 2007, SanDisk asserted five patents in its complaint to the ITC against 25 companies making, selling or importing USB flash drives, CompactFlash cards, MultiMedia cards, MP3/media players and/or other removable flash storage products. The companies sued included A-Data Technology, Apacer Technology, Phison, PQI, Silicon Motion, Skymedi and Transcend Information.
Posted by | Thu, Apr 16, 2009 - 06:45 AM
New taxes for taxing times?
Because of quirks in many state laws, sales taxes may be levied on CDs sold in storefronts but not on iTunes and other digital downloads. This is the situation that recession-weary, tax-hungry politicians are hoping to change.
Mississippi is one of the latest states to write into law a tax on digital products. The measure, which was adopted mid-March and goes into effect July 1, imposes a sale and use tax on specified digital products--including digital audio-visual works such as movies, digital audio works such as ringtones, and digital books. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour endorsed the legislation via Twitter. "On HB 1461, I support this bill and here's why: This bill will treat Internet sales like catalog sales making it a level playing field," he said on March 11. Including Mississippi, at least 18 states claim they have the authority to collect taxes on digital goods, and more are likely to join them.
Posted by | Wed, Apr 15, 2009 - 09:12 AM
April 15 News from Around the Web
GSkill Pi Black Triple Channel PC3 12800 6GB Memory Review @ Ninjalane and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
The G.Skill Pi Edition PC-3 12800 6GB Ram Kit showed exactly why G.Skill has earned the respect and loyalty of hardware enthusiasts. The kits arrived in excellent condition and they performed better than promised. They also look very nice and proved to be extremely stable as our testing revealed no weaknesses even when pushed past their rated speeds with tighter than stock timings.
Posted by | Wed, Apr 15, 2009 - 07:45 AM
Intel 1Q Net Down 55%; 2Q Rev View In Line With Street
Intel Corp.'s first-quarter net income dropped 55% on lower sales and margins, but Chief Executive Paul Otellini said personal computer sales bottomed out during the quarter and the industry is returning to normal seasonal patterns. I guess it is a good sign that patterns are returning to normal!
Intel, which didn't provide official guidance citing economic uncertainty and limited visibility, said for internal purposes it was planning for second-quarter revenue to be flat compared with the first quarter. That view is in line with analysts' estimates. The world's largest computer-chip maker reported net income of $647 million, or 11 cents a share, down from $1.44 billion, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. The results included a loss of $113 million on equity investments, compared with a loss of $59 million a year earlier. Revenue dropped to $7.1 billion from $9.67 billion. In January, Intel projected about $7 billion in revenue.
Posted by | Tue, Apr 14, 2009 - 03:45 PM
April 14 News from Around the Web
Galaxy GeForce GTX 275 Overclocked Tri-Fan Graphics Card @ TweakTown and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
"It hasn't taken long for NVIDIA partners to start spicing up the GTX 275. Come launch day we already saw that Gainward had opted for aftermarket cooling. Galaxy has kicked up a notch, though; this not only by including a pretty mean cooling setup on the card, but also taking the time to increase the core and memory clock. While the card was designed to compete directly against the HD 4890, what we're seeing is that in the retail channel the GTX 275 is slightly more expensive. While this might be a bad thing considering the fact that the GTX 275 is designed to compete head to head with the HD 4890, it isn't really, as that little bit of extra cost carries with it that little bit of extra performance."
Posted by | Tue, Apr 14, 2009 - 10:24 AM
OCZ Introduces AMD Optimized Memory for AM3 Platforms
OCZ Technology yesterday expanded their memory lineup for AMD enthusiasts and power users with new DDR3 kits qualified and optimized specifically for the AM3 platform. The new low-voltage kits were designed exclusively for AMD’s transition to DDR3 and are tailored to make full use of the latest computing environments as well as establish a future-proof system with restricted voltage requirements.
“AMD’s new AM3 architecture is designed specifically for the gaming community, with emphasis on high data transfer rates between the system memory and the graphics subsystem,” commented Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development at OCZ. “The key improvement over the AM2 platform is the embracing of DDR3 technology where OCZ has a track record of being a market leader. These new AMD kits further establish our leading role in this category and show our commitment to both industry partners and the gaming community by complementing AMD’s gaming platform with future-oriented, low voltage memory technology.”
Posted by | Tue, Apr 14, 2009 - 08:33 AM
TSMC expected to remain profitable or break even in 1Q09
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is expected to maintain its profitability, or fall to its breakeven point, for the first quarter of 2009, according to market observers, which rate better-than-expected performance of the chipmaker.
TSMC earlier reported unaudited consolidated revenues of NT$39.5 billion (US$1.17 billion), 3.95% higher than its originally-projected NT$38 billion. The observers said the foundry will see its utilization rebound throughout the third quarter of this year, as regular orders have resumed due to a warming up of demand.
Posted by | Tue, Apr 14, 2009 - 08:28 AM
Tech earnings will show how Silicon Valley is faring in the downturn
Some of Silicon Valley's largest and most important tech companies are about to unveil earnings reports this month that will be eagerly scrutinized by analysts and investors, looking for signs about the future economic health of this region's dominant industry. Many of the profit and sales figures for the first three months of this year are bound to be unimpressive, if not downright dismal.
Few reports will be checked more closely than the one to be issued Tuesday by Intel, the world's dominant maker of chips. "We're all going to be watching Intel," said Craig Berger an analyst with FBR Capital Markets. "Intel is going to be a guidepost for the rest." Intel's semiconductors serve as the brains for a wide variety of personal computers, servers and other electronic gadgets. So when Intel's chip sales dwindle, it signals a possible slowdown in business at other companies that use its products, ranging from giants like Hewlett-Packard to small, off-brand personal-computer makers.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 13, 2009 - 09:15 AM
Intel offers netbook packages to China white-box vendors
Intel recently unveiled several netbook packages designed for China white-box vendors to help them create a wider variety in their product lineups, according to sources at netbook vendors. Intel confirmed the reports but stressed that final pricing will be set by the vendors.
Intel will offer packages targeting four price levels – 1,750 RMB (US$256), 1,750-2,100 RMB, 2,101-2,450 RMB and 2,451-2,800 RMB. The 1,750 RMB package will include Intel's Atom N270 processor, 945GSE chipset, an 8.9-inch panel, 512MB memory, 8G/16GB solid state drive (SSD) and Linux operating system. The other three packages will have the same basic components including an Atom N270 processor, 945GSE chipset and 10.2-inch panel, along with addition components based on the price bracket.
Posted by | Mon, Apr 13, 2009 - 09:13 AM
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