Could Skype's Own Update Have Contributed to Last Week's Outage?
BetaNews reported yesterday that Skype issued an update notice to its users for downloading the new release of its VoIP client software, on the Monday prior to what Skype engineers are now calling a "perfect storm" of events which took down its network for about 48 hours. In our report, we posed the question of how a mass Microsoft software update on Patch Tuesday have triggered such a storm on a Thursday. This morning, BetaNews' tests revealed a possible clue to an answer.
On one system last Monday, August 20, at approximately 11:00 am ET, we installed an upgrade to Skype bringing it up to version 3.5.0.214. The upgrade immediately brought up the new program, which appeared to be - and still appears to be - fully functional and in good working order. Wednesday morning, after two full system standbys (S3 sleep mode hibernation) had passed though without a full system reboot, and without the Skype client actually running, a "Restart required" message appeared on that system's screen.
Apple Nears 6 Percent Market Share in US
Apple’s computer business continues to grow, with its share of the notebook business in June 2007 growing to 17.6 percent according to one market research firm.
NPD says that the Cupertino company gained 2.2 percentage points since the same period last year, while data from competing research outfit IDC indicates that Apple has moved into the third place overall in US shipments.
Adobe: New Flash Beta Will Deliver 1080p in H.264
A high-level representative of Adobe told BetaNews late yesterday that "Moviestar," the code-name for the latest upgrade to its Flash Player 9 software, will indeed be capable of playing back H.264-encoded video at modern high-definition: 1920 x 1080.
Mark Randall, Adobe's Chief Strategist for Dynamic Media Organization, also told BetaNews that the newly supported H.264 format will be capable of playing back videos encoded for Apple's QuickTime. H.264 is the video encoding codec currently used in MPEG-4.
Panasonic Debuts Longer-Lasting LCD HDTVs
Panasonic said Wednesday that it had begun shipping the first of its high definition televisions to include a proprietary technology called LIFI, which is said to both ensure image brightness for a longer period of time than the standard LCD HDTV, and have a quicker start up time. The first TVs will be available in 50, 56, and 61-inch models, and will be available in both 720p and 1080p versions, ranging in price from $1700 to $2200.
LIFI HDTVs do not use electrodes as the light source, Panasonic said, which results in longer life. Additionally, that same technology reduces the time that it takes for the television to start up from around a minute to 15 seconds. “The fact that the bulb will virtually never need to be replaced is a great benefit to the consumer and one of the reasons we strongly believe that LIFI will be successful,” Panasonic vice president Dennis Eppel said in a statement.
Will Google Bid in 700 MHz Auction After All, and How Much?
Reuters broke the news this morning that, at a leadership conference in Aspen, Colorado, Google CEO Eric Schmidt responded to a question from a representative of T-Mobile USA by saying his company may be inclined to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s auction of UHF television frequencies, now set for January 16, 2008.
While all versions of Reuters’ stories in the US, Canada, and the UK had been yanked from online access for unexplained reasons at the time of this writing, GigaOM’s Paul Kapustka apparently reporting from the conference itself gave an account that validated the spirit of the Reuters report, citing Schmidt as saying his company would “probably” place a bid. Reuters had quoted Schmidt as responding to T-Mobile’s question about whether Google would bid by saying that placing a bid “probably would be the way to answer that.” T-Mobile is itself a likely bidder in this auction.
Woot.com Offers Zune for $149.99
Discount site Woot.com has somehow managed to acquire enough white Zune players to sell them at a $100 discount from Microsoft's suggested retail price. For as long as supplies last, a new Zune player can be had for $149.99 plus $5 shipping.
Woot typically sells older items or those that have been overstocked and sitting on store shelves. The deal could be an indicator that Microsoft is trying to clear out stock in preparation for new models of the Zune that could arrive before the holidays. Either way, it's a great opportunity for those who have wanted a cheap portable audio player and aren't a fan of Apple products.
Comcast Accused of Throttling BitTorrent Traffic
Comcast is denying any filtering of BitTorrent traffic after a blog accused it and other ISPs of attempting to thwart users of the service.
The TorrentFreak blog first made the accusations last week in a post, which said Comcast and other providers had been either limiting BitTorrent bandwidth or preventing users from seeding their downloads.
TiVo HD 'Fully Stocked' at Retailers
TiVo said Wednesday that its new lower-cost high-definition DVR is now available at retailers across the United States after being announced in late July. The $299 TiVo HD sports much of the same feature set found in TiVo's high-end $799 Series3.
The company says TiVo HD is arriving as many consumers are looking to upgrade their television setups to high-definition. TiVo did not say when it plans to activate the TiVoToGo portability features for either HD model, but news on that front is expected sometime in the near future. TiVo service costs $16.95 per month on a 1-year basis, or $12.95 per month with a 3-year contract.
Michael Bay Tries HD DVD, Likes It
A day after protesting a decision by Paramount to only support HD DVD and threatening not to make a second "Transformers" movie, Michael Bay has apparently had a change of heart after seeing the format in action. He apologized in a forum post Tuesday evening for drinking the Blu-ray "kool aid."
"I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard," Bay wrote. "As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision. So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks! So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!"
T-Mobile, Orange, O2 Get iPhone in Europe
Apple has secured revenue sharing deals to bring its iPhone to Europe, the Financial Times reported late Tuesday.
Three operators have signed deals with Apple that will be officially announced later this month at an industry trade show, the paper reported. They are T-Mobile in Germany, Orange in France, and O2 in the UK.
iPhone Updated, UBS Estimates 800,000 Sold This Quarter
Apple on Tuesday released its second software update for the popular iPhone, which has seen sales continue to soar even a month after its debut. Unfortunately, the company is providing few details of what's new in the update, citing only "Bug fixes," but we don't doubt users will rush to upgrade.
Meanwhile, the research arm of UBS said in a note Tuesday that it expects Apple to top its estimated sales of 730,000 iPhones this quarter. UBS says that it expects upwards of 800,000 iPhones to be sold in Apple's fiscal fourth quarter. Still, those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, as some analysts predicted 500,000 iPhone sales in the first weekend when the numbers ended up around 270,000.
Microsoft's Answer to Google AdWords Enters Beta August 29
Customers of Microsoft's AdCenter are being invited to participate in the company's first foray in the field of context-sensitive, text-only advertising - the product that many say established Google's permanent presence in online services.
Displaying its typical flair for draining all the poetry out of the naming process, Microsoft Content Ads enters the beta process one week from tomorrow, with the promise of opening up formerly premium MSN ad inventory to low-cost clients.
Microsoft Uses Silverlight to Spiff Up Search
Microsoft has unveiled an application that combines its Silverlight technology with Windows Live Search, code-named "Tafiti." The name means "to search" in Swahili. It integrates the various types of Live Search, and allows users to store and share search results by placing them on "shelves." From there they can be stored or e-mailed or blogged about. Tafiti runs on any browser and platform that Siverlight is compatible with.
In addition to the virtual shelves, the application also includes a carousel to help the user navigate through returned search results, and a tree view where search results are placed on the limbs of a tree and allows for visualization of search results. While the applicaiton is likely to never become an actual Microsoft product, the team responsible for creating Tafiti has made it publicly available.
Microsoft Sets a Date for Unveiling UC Software
The first commercial release of Office Communications Server 2007 will be unveiled to the public on October 16, Microsoft announced this morning. Along with it will be the Office Communicator (OC) client - the company's professional grade on-screen messaging service - as well as the next edition of Live Meeting, whose conferencing features will be upgraded to support OC.
The move comes a day after Microsoft publicly made nice with Cisco, which is otherwise one of its principal competitors in the communications space.
Toshiba Builds Largest Laptop Drive
Toshiba on Tuesday announced a lineup of nine new 2.5-inch laptop hard drives, including the world's largest to date with a capacity of 320GB. The drives incorporate Serial ATA interfaces and speeds of either 5,400 RPM or 7,200 RPM. Toshiba expects to begin mass production in November.
The 320GB monster includes 2 disk platters and 4 heads, while offering seek times of 12ms and 8MB of buffer. The faster 7,200 RPM drives reach 200GB in size and offer buffer memory of 16MB. Toshiba says the new 200GB drive increases the maximum transfer rate by approximately 46% and the average random access time by approximately 8%.
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
Regional iGaming Content
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.