MSN Direct will come to more GPS devices this year
The latest update to Microsoft's MSN Direct service will take effect on numerous personal navigation devices.
The update will allow users to integrate their personal navigation device with Microsoft Live Search Maps and all corresponding location data. Microsoft will be working with Alpine, Pioneer, Garmin, dmedia, and Streetdeck.
Nokia's 3G N95 to bring HSDPA to the US
Nokia announced yesterday that it will optimize its popular N95 for 850/1900 MHz high speed data packet access (HSDPA) in the Americas. The N95's European counterpart already had 3G functions, but with the added HSDPA support, Western Hemisphere users will be granted high-speed connectivity.
The daunting package also comes with a 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics with autofocus, and one-click access to Flickr and Vox. The N95 includes 8 GB of internal memory, a 3D graphics processor with compatibility with the soon to be re-available N-Gage games, A-GPS, and a 3-inch QVGA screen.
Analysis: Ten reasons why discs won't die
Scott Fulton, BetaNews: Well, all the cards are pretty much on the table now at CES 2008, and it's time to start looking at what it all means. For that we've brought along our former Gartner analyst and BetaNews' own Senior CES Analyst, Sharon Fisher.
And Sharon, I'm thinking the place to start this week is with the notion that the high-def format war may be drawing down, if not to a complete close, and the real excitement has shifted over to streaming video.
Sprint prepares for April WiMAX US rollout
Despite early adoption woes, manufacturers are still confident the WiMAX standard will take hold of the high-speed wireless industry as early as April.
Sprint, one of the major players involved with WiMAX, recently rolled out its Xohm mobile Internet service for Sprint employees located in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. The wireless company said Tuesday it plans to have two WiMAX modems released in April, when the network is slated to become available to the public in select cities.
Up Close: Lenovo's new consumer IdeaPads
BetaNews met up with Lenovo at CES for some hands-on time with the new consumer-oriented IdeaPad notebooks. The new models come in three models, but share Lenovo's focus on quality construction and top-notch keyboards that ThinkPads have long been known for.
Lenovo's 11-inch IdeaPad has an aluminum casing, while the 15-inch model is built with ABS plastic. The 15-inch IdeaPad includes a 1.3-megapixel camera that does facial scanning for authenticating users.
Microsoft says controversial Office SP3 was never in Automatic Updates
The controversial Service Pack 3 was never distributed to Microsoft Office end users through Automatic Updates, Microsoft told BetaNews. So if you're a Lotus Notes or Corel Quattro user who wants to undo its impact, you can.
Microsoft representatives responded to BetaNews -- in fact, they made the effort of responding at length -- in putting forth the company's case that it never had any intention of arbitrarily declaring older, non-Microsoft Office formats a security risk.
Microsoft issues out-of-cycle fix for critical Windows RPC fault
If the Vista kernel can't be spoofed, it appears some of its key Internet Protocol kernel drivers can be. An IBM security division discovered the problem, and this morning, Microsoft issued what it hopes will be a fix.
A division of IBM involved with security research is being credited for having discovered a seriously exploitable vulnerability in both Windows XP and Windows Vista. The subject this time around deals with two critical components used by the TCP/IP stack: Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6, the latter applying only to Vista.
Mobile TV broadcasting: The second coming of GSM?
In a panel discussion today concerning the future of technology policy in the European Union, Japan, and the United States, it became apparent that the EU's and the US's opinions on mobile TV are diametrically opposed.
The panel was moderated by Financial Times West Coast editor Richard Waters, and included these panelists: David A. Gross, Ambassador and US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy; The Honorable Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and the Media, European Commission, European Union; and The Honorable Tsutomu Sato, Senior Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan.
Blu-ray: Early adopters knew what they were getting into
Blu-ray may have taken a commanding lead in the next-generation format war, but the group has a big problem looming: early supporters of the format will be left out in the cold when the Blu-ray Disc Association introduces BD Profile 2.0
Unlike HD DVD, which mandated features such as local storage, a second video and audio decoder for picture-in-picture, and a network connection from the very beginning, the companies behind Blu-ray took a different approach. Initial hardware players lacked these capabilities in order to keep costs down.
Up Close: TiVo adds video transfers from the PC
Although TiVo didn't have any new hardware to show off at CES, the company was demoing its upcoming video features, which include the ability to transfer downloaded content from a PC to the TiVo. This means TiVo users can subscribe to video podcasts or download DivX movies and have them sync automatically to the device for watching on the TV.
First up, TiVo will release a new TiVo Desktop client -- version 2.6 -- in March to enable the functionality. Beta testing is expected to begin in February. TiVo Desktop will transcode the video into the MPEG-2 format used by the set-top box. High-definition content is fully supported.
Up Close: LG's Viewty phone
Mirroring the device's global popularity, LG's Viewty (LG-KU990) camera phone seems to be a hot item in the Korean manufacturer's booth at CES today.
The five-megapixel handset was reported by LG at the end of 2007 to be selling approximately 6,300 units daily in Europe, a number far higher than its most successful prior models.
Up Close: Panasonic's 150-inch display
While last year's CES had multiple electronics makers touting the world's largest display, Panasonic took no chances this year, showcasing a 150-inch plasma TV. The screen has been the talk of the show, measuring 11 feet long with a resolution of 2000x4000 pixels. Although it's just a prototype, the television highlights the ability for manufacturers to build bigger screens at lower prices.
Origami Project resuscitated with new software version
Even though the platform has seemingly been forgotten by many in the media after lots of initial buzz, Microsoft is still pressing ahead in the UMPC space.
At CES, the Redmond company is showing off Origami Experience 2.0, its upgrade to the original UMPC experience. While details of the full platform are not yet being released, the company is offering a sneak peek of four applications to be included.
Dueling quadruple-play architectures at CES
Scott Fulton, BetaNews: One of the major trends we're following all this week at CES concerns connectivity: Specifically, how all these wired services are supposed to make it to the gateway of your home or office, and who will be the ones who get it there? In the wired fiberoptic service arena (as opposed to wireless), there are two principal rollout architectures, dealing with whether the line to your house gets replaced with fiberoptic or gets left as copper.
There was news on both fronts at CES this morning, and our Sharon Fisher has more about it.
What is Microsoft planning with Fast's 'behavioral' search technology?
In a teleconference held today to discuss its $1.2 billion acquisition bid for Norwegian-based Fast Search & Transfer, Microsoft spelled out how Fast's technology will fill out its existing enterprise search capabilities.
Yet Microsoft appeared to skirt questions from the press and analysts around how the technology might also be used in Web search applications such as online advertising.
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.