AMD's 45 nm midrange Phenom IIs aim to regain the performance lead
Last month, the one-time price-performance leader introduced its first desktop-class, upper-tier 45 nm Phenom II processors. Today, AMD is readying its midrange CPUs in that category, with a strategy that just might work.
As far as process generations are concerned, AMD is one big step behind Intel already, with that company's Core i7 architecture starting to incorporate almost everything AMD used to champion -- including a built-in memory controller -- while also using 32 nm lithography. AMD's strategy to contest Core i7 is looking clearer: Erase the perceived advantage of Core i7 by challenging its performance at lower price points, and enticing customers in the value segment with the prospects of one extra core.
Dancing with the Woz
Let it never be said that Apple co-founder and legendary prankster Steve Wozniak doesn't have a wonderful sense of fun. But how's his sense of rhythm? We're about to find out, as Wozniak is slated to show off his moves on the next season of Dancing With The Stars.
For those who've managed to miss this cultural phenomenon, it's an ABC series; celebrity "dancers" train with professional hoofers and go on to strut their stuff on camera. Each week, one dancer is eliminated by a combination of judges' results and fan voting via phone/text/Web.
Major label venture TotalMusic calls it a day
A project by major record labels Sony and Universal sought to change the distribution method of digital music. But over the weekend, a key executive unofficially declared that the plug has been pulled.
In a blog answer to the TechCrunch assessment that Total Music was "sinking fast", Jason Herskowitz, VP of Product Management at Total Music, confirmed the project's termination, saying, "I regret that we didn't get to show you guys more about what we built -- but in these extremely hard economic times (particularly for those in the music industry) it's hard to blame them from pulling the plug on a still-highly-speculative offering."
Google Sync made possible through patent license with Microsoft
As it turns out, Google did not develop a calendar and contacts synchronization platform all on its own. Rather, it licensed Exchange Server patents from Microsoft, in a deal that company is describing today as an "open" license.
This morning, Google launched its initial beta for a contacts synchronization service that enables individuals to share information for up to five mobile calendars and three e-mail addresses between devices, including iPhone, S60, BlackBerry, Sony Ericsson, and Windows Mobile phones. If that list sounded familiar, it's because their manufacturers are all on the patent licensing agreement list announced by Microsoft last December 18.
Acer ships updated Aspire One, with Windows but no Linux
About a week ahead of schedule, Acer has started US shipments of its second generation Aspire One netbook, a Windows XP-only device with a larger 10.1-inch screen.
Despite the bigger screen size of the new Aspire One AOD150, Acer's latest netbook doesn't offer an appreciably roomier keyboard, according to some who have tried out the new PC, which first shipped in the UK on January 23.
Google launches Sync for iPhone and Windows Mobile
Google has released a tool that allows Google calendar and Gmail contact data to be synced with iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. Similar to the Blackberry application Google released last year, Google Sync integrates a user's Google calendar data with the phone's native calendar. It also works with Google Apps accounts, but administrator approval must first be granted.
There are currently some limitations to the application. The iPhone, for example, cannot sync more than five calendars, and contact information cannot hold multiple numbers for fax, mobile, or pager headings, and each contact is limited to 3 email addresses.
Hynix to scale DDR3 DRAM down to 40 nm
Forget the legal headaches with SDRAM, Hynix announced over the weekend that the "three dimensional transistor" fabrication technology allows for gigabit DDR3 DRAM chips to now be made in the 40 nm size class. Mass production of these 40 nm chips from Hynix is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2009.
ZoneAlarm Router gets updated
Check Point software's ZoneAlarm Secure Wireless Router Z100G version 8.0 has been released today. The company's antivirus and firewall-enabled wireless router is just over two years old, and has been updated to include VStream antispam, a firewall monitor and status dashboard, built-in DNS server, and support for Xbox LIVE hosting.
The updated Z100G ("G" as in "802.11g") maintains the same premium pricetag that its predecessor carried, and will retail for $149.95.
It's official: LG Arena 3D phone to debut at MWC
Over the weekend, LG corroborated industry rumblings about the rollout of a potential iPhone rival at Mobile World Congress (MWC), also claiming that the Arena's 3D "S-Class" interface will set it apart from all others.
"The direct, intuitive and dynamic S-Class UI will be unlike anything that has appeared in a mobile phone before," said LG's Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, in a statement issued on Sunday. "With rich 3D graphics, touch senstivity and exciting multimedia capabilities, it will truly make Arena a fully loaded multimedia phone."
Amazon launches a sleeker, spookier Kindle 2
Amazon hosted an event today at the Morgan Library in New York that officially unveiled the second generation Kindle which surfaced in leaked photos as far back as October 2008.
The new Kindle has the same screen size as the original version, but has received an upgrade to the shape and durability of the chassis. Now only a fraction of the thickness (0.36" at its thickest), and stuffed with a purported seven times the amount of storage of the first generation Kindle, the latest version has incorporated a metal back plate into the body design.
Cisco and job cuts: Will they or won't they?
Cisco made news Wednesday when CEO John Chambers stated repeatedly his company would resist the trend toward big layoffs -- welcome news to beleaguered tech folk. But the days that followed were spent pondering what the heck he meant.
The math's telling. Cisco currently employs around 67,000 people. Current restructuring efforts, underway for around a year and a half, will eliminate perhaps as many as 3,000 of those positions, or 4.4%. A thousand are already gone.
Hackers pants antivirus database
A good cook can burn a dish, a good outfielder can drop a can o' corn, and a good antivirus company can apparently have a big gap in their database defenses, as poster "unu" makes abundantly clear at HackersBlog at the moment.
The compromised site is kaspersky.com, and though unu was kind enough to blot out some of the crucial details of the vulnerability in his/her post, it appears that simply changing a few parameters breaches a SQL database containing users, activation codes... well, unu provides quite the list of tables. Can't have been much of a fun weekend over at Kaspersky with that flapping in the breeze.
Latest Mozilla updates, including Firefox, address a serious vulnerability
Download Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 for Windows from Fileforum now.
Some of Mozilla's best researchers into the field of cross-site scripting discovered another instance where code from one site can be made to control the interface of another. As it turns out, version 3.0.6 software contains the fix.
News Corp. has an 'other' problem
Rupert Murdoch's empire is sprawling, varied and, as everyone saw in yesterday's News Corp earnings report, hurting in the current economy. What does that mean for MySpace and the company's IGN Entertainment properties?
News Corp. files its Fox Interactive Media endeavors, which include all of those properties along with Photobucket, Hulu, Beliefnet and many more, in the "other" segment of its quarterly earnings reports. And Thursday's report was not cheerful; "other" reported a Q2 2009 adjusted operating loss of $38 million, down from a $23 million profit in Q2 2008 -- most of it due to weakness at IGN and News Digital Media (which operates mainly in Australia and has since been taken private by the company).
Roku begins private beta of Amazon on Demand
The $99 Roku set top box that ushered in the age of streaming Netflix became an open platform late last year and will soon be offering Amazon on Demand to all. The streaming service this week entered private beta for select Roku users.
Amazon's Video on Demand, a sort of re-thinking of Unbox, left its beta stage in September. At launch, the service offered over 40,000 movies and television episodes with fees ranging from free to $3.99 per rental. Amazon support on the Roku device balances the Netflix content with new releases, an area where the subscription service remains weak.
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