NVidia closes the deal with Ageia
GPU manufacturer NVidia has successfully acquired physics processor maker Ageia Technologies, in a deal announced last week. The new parent told BetaNews today it could add PhysX technology into future GeForce GPU products as soon as possible.
"We're really excited about the future of physics and Ageia," NVidia Public Relations spokesperson Derek Perez told BetaNews. "We hope adding more physics technology into GeForce will impact the way virtual worlds look and behave, thus helping to drive the end user experience."
New Phoenix BIOS will run Linux apps when Windows fails
California-based Phoenix Technologies has announced its plan to develop an embedded Linux-based bypass system that will allow users to run some productivity applications even if the main OS has failed.
Linux is already gaining some ground as an embedded operating system. So now Phoenix, which made its name as the core provider of BIOS for PCs, is working with several partners to leverage embedded Linux as a bypass operating system.
Analysts: Yahoo must now accept buyout bid if Microsoft raises price
A chorus of Wall Street analysts are urging Yahoo to take the deal, now that it's clear no other buyers are really emerging. But they're also saying it's time for Microsoft to raise its original offer for Yahoo in order to make it happen.
With Yahoo's other options on the wane, top Wall Street analysts including Yahoo's second-biggest investor are now warning Yahoo to accept Microsoft's buyout offer, if Microsoft is willing to raise it by just enough.
DirecTV profits and growth feel pinch of slowing economy
The nation's largest satellite television provider saw its net profit shrink by two percent and customer growth remained flat.
Regardless of those results, the company is managing to hold strongly on to customers, posting a 1.42 percent average monthly churn, its lowest turnover rate in eight years.
Senate passes surveillance reform, re-inserts telco immunity
In his State of the Union address last month, President Bush said he would sign no extension to existing surveillance laws that did not grant telcos immunity for having cooperated in the past. Today, the President got his wish.
In a move almost certain to set up a showdown between US House and Senate lawmakers in conference committee, by a vote of 68 - 29, the Senate yesterday afternoon passed the House's version of a bill granting limited warrantless surveillance powers to US intelligence and justice officials, but only after re-inserting a clause whose deletion was critical to its passage in the House: The clause grants immunity to telecommunications companies who cooperated with the government in the past in foreign intelligence operations.
Play.com to open MP3 store in the UK
Mozilla releases Firefox 3.0 Beta 3, adds several features
The Mozilla organization on Tuesday posted Beta 3 of Firefox 3.0, for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. The beta's release notes are indicating substantial progress on new and so far unseen features.
BetaNews has yet to make extensive tests of Beta 3, though a check of the release notes indicates that this may be the build where a number of critical and long-awaited new features actually get tested for the first time.
Microsoft denies talks about licensing Windows Mobile to Nokia
Has Microsoft really confirmed that is talking with Nokia about Windows Mobile licensing, or not? The latest word from Microsoft on that question is, "No."
Speaking with BetaNews today, a Microsoft spokesperson said that news reports in some other publications -- based around a press conference held Monday in Barcelona, Spain -- contain misinterpretations of remarks made by Microsoft executive Pieter Knook.
Dept. of Homeland Security granted right to snoop on T-Mobile users
In order to gain the approval of the United States government to merge SunCom Wireless into T-Mobile USA, parent company Deutsche Telekom had to extend its electronic surveillance agreement to include the Department of Homeland Security.
The Federal Communications Commission late Friday gave the green light to Deutsche Telekom to acquire regional cellular carrier SunCom for $2.4 billion in cash. SunCom is based in Pennsylvania and serves 1.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Dell buys family-owned MessageOne for SaaS
Part of Dell Computer's transition strategy is to no longer focus all its interests on one side of the technology market exclusively. That was made clearer today with another acquisition of a service-oriented software provider.
Dell has added a second ingredient to an emerging arsenal of SaaS (software as a service) tools for customer self-service. Today, the company announced it has acquired e-mail archiving, compliance, and business continuity vendor MessageOne, a company owned by Dell CEO Michael Dell's brother, Adam, and two investment funds managed by the Dell family.
Vmedia shows phone with its own blue-laser optical disc drive
Indian cellular carrier Spice Telecom is placing its bets on a phone that will use an optical disc drive in order to play movies. It's the first such device of its kind, combining next-generation miniaturized storage with Bollywood star power.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Boulder, Colorado-based Vmedia Research is showing off what is likely the world's first cellular handset with a blue laser optical disc drive. It'll make its premiere in India as the "Movie Phone" from Spice Telecom.
Yahoo and video platform Maven Networks formally tie the knot
The acquisition of a new and surging startup in the video services field demonstrates that Yahoo intends to pursue its restructuring strategy, just as though February 1 never happened.
Two weeks ago might have been the dawn of Yahoo's next step in moving its multimedia platform strategy forward, had it not been for Microsoft stealing its thunder that week. Today, however, Yahoo went forward with its formal announcement that it is purchasing video and advertising platform producer Maven Networks for $160 million.
Custom 404 pages from Google Toolbar beta cause a stir
6:20 pm EST February 12, 2008 - No sooner did we get through posting that BetaNews hadn't found a problem with the version 5 beta of Google Toolbar than it actually did find one: Indeed, the beta is capable of substituting a custom 404 page such as the ones BetaNews and other sites are capable of generating for themselves, for its own Google-supplied counterpart.
Google Toolbar 5 showed this substitute in place of a URL to one of our Web pages that we later learned was malformed. Normally, Internet Explorer would allow us to post our own custom 404 page.5:03 pm EST - If you know where to look, you can turn off unwanted features in your software. But in the latest beta brouhaha, Google is being accused by testers of burying one of its off switches in a deep, dark corner that few would know how to find.
Apple TV update goes live with high-definition rentals
Apple silently pushed its promised update to customers with its Apple TV device on Tuesday.
The update will take about six minutes to download over a broadband connection, and another five to ten minutes to install. The update will install in three parts, with the Apple logo and progress bar reappearing each time.
Apple debuts Aperture 2, slashes price
On Tuesday, nearly a year and a half after the company first broke into the professional photography market with its editing suite, a new version was released.
Apple says about 100 new features are included in this latest release, as well as performance enhancements and a new image processing engine. Additionally, it has dropped the price by $100 to $199.
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