Ever wish you could show off all your digital camera’s video clips as easily as you do your photos on VMC? Well, guess what? chandler72 has released a free Beta app called clipShow on Microsoft’s CodePlex that does just that. What’s more, users can create playlists, play clips by date / tags, or set clipShow to rotate through random clips at timed playback intervals (30 / 60 / 90 seconds) or their entirety. [via]
From : http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/
If half the problem with MIDs and UMPCs is explaining to would-be buyers why they really ought to consider one, the other is actually finding them for sale. Aigo’s P8860 MID is a case in point; on sale since August in Hong Kong, trying to find one elsewhere will force you onto eBay. Now, finally, an official reseller has been nominated, Direct From Japan, who will happily ship you the P8860 anywhere worldwide.
If we’re dealing in halves, then the remaining 50-percent of today’s good Aigo news is that the company has signed the necessary deals with Microsoft and Intel to be able to promise Windows XP drivers for the Mobile Internet Device. A Windows XP version was spotted at the Hong Kong launch but no timescale for availability given; we now know that come the first week of October the drivers will be released. It will mean the 4.8-inch touchscreen will be properly recognized and functional.
Direct From Japan are asking $699 for the Aigo P8860, including free shipping worldwide. That compares well to the HK$5228 (US$670) price-tag in Hong Kong. Your money gets you an Intel Atom Z500 processor, 512MB of RAM and a 4GB SSD for storage, all in something weighing just 350g.
[via Pocketables and Slashgear]
Geeks all know it, of course, but the technological underpinnings of Mac OS X is Unix. Specifically, it's "Leopard is an Open Brand UNIX 03 Registered Product, conforming to the SUSv3 and POSIX 1003.1 specifications for the C API, Shell Utilities, and Threads."
What does that mean? Behind that techno-babble is one important fact: you can leverage the Mac's Unix underpinnings to make the computer do more, both as a software developer and as a power user.
Apple has put together a Web page that describes some of the key Unix technologies expose by Mac OS X, including its Terminal (which gives you access to the Unix command line) and DTrace, an application debugging program written by Sun for its own version of Unix called Solaris.
If you want to learn how to leverage the Unix inside Mac OS X, though, the best place to turn is "Mac OS X for Unix Geeks," published by O'Reilly Media. The 4th version of the book, updated for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, just came out last week. According to the publisher,
You'll learn how to perform common Unix tasks in Mac OS X, such as using Directory Services instead of the standard Unix /etc/passwd and /etc/group, and you'll be able to compile code, link to libraries, and port Unix software using either Leopard and Tiger.
This book teaches you to:
• Navigate the Terminal and understand how it differs from an xterm
• Use Open Directory (LDAP) and NetInfo as well as Directory Services
• Compile your code with GCC 3
• Port Unix programs to Mac OS X with Fink
• Use MacPorts to install free/open source software
• Search through metadata with Spotlight's command-line utilities
• Build the Darwin kernel
If that's all greek to you, then this probably isn't a book you should get. But if you just drooled all over the keyboard, then it's time to start hacking the kernel!
From : http://www.bmighty.com/
While users and non-users alike do a fair amount of grumbling about Windows Vista, many of us use it. Those of us who do have also typically learned that customizing Vista is essential for everything from how the interface behaves to improving battery life on portable computers. In this post, I’ll cover a couple of free ways to exhaustively optimize Vista.
Tweakguides offers a couple of really exhaustive guides to optimizing both Vista and Windows XP. Dubbed Tweaking Companions, even if you’re already familiar with these guides, the Vista Tweaking Companion has been steadily updated since I last mentioned it and is worth getting in its new version. There is also now a paid Deluxe Edition, which I haven’t yet tried, but the free version is very good.
The Vista Tweaking Companion walks you through categorized ways to optimize Vista. The tips include optimizing drivers, adding useful freeware to Vista, shutting down unnecessary features, and more. In particular, Vista is a resource hog, and especially if you are using it on a portable computer with limited resources, getting rid of components you don’t need and use can give you much better performance and fewer headaches.
For a free software utility that allows you to choose Vista optimizations you want, look into Vista4Experts. Don’t let the name fool you. This is a very easy utility that lets you shut off parts of Vista that you don’t need and may be bogging you down, and more. You can use it to get rid of many of the more annoying scans and notifications that Vista does by default.
From : http://webworkerdaily.com/
Apple investors freaked out Monday, in part because two Wall Street analysts downgraded the stock. They are worried that margins will be compressed and sales of Macintosh computers and iPhones will be less than expected.
Apple’s shares fell by $22.34 (or 17.4 percent) to $105.90 Monday. That compares to a 6.8 percent drop for Hewlett Packard and a 6.4 percent fall for Dell.
How Apple handles the substantial turbulence among consumers is, in fact, a major test of its strategy and momentum. When Apple publishes its third quarter results and–even more–its sales for the holiday season, we’ll see how its premium-priced product line holds up in tougher times. Will people still pay more for the style and ease of use of a Mac when they are worried about paying the mortgage and filling the tank in the minivan?
When a company has had the kind of business success that Apple has enjoyed over the last five years, its stock certainly can drop like Wile E. Coyote after zooming off the side of a cliff.
But after the smoke clears, the bigger question is how special is Apple now? How much will it continue to have better margins and better growth than its rivals?
I suspect this depends on two main factors:
First is Apple’s ability to maintain the premium pricing of its computer and iPod lines. And second is its ability to morph the stagnant iPod business into more rapidly growing product lines.
Apple has done amazingly well using the dominance of the iPod and some sleek technology to maintain substantially higher prices than its rivals.
A recession represents a major peril for a premium brand. There’s a temptation to cut prices to maintain sales. But sometimes it’s better to let sales fall than to cheapen your image so much that the halo is lost when the market rebounds.
One current in the wide river of Apple rumors has been about a lower-priced line of computers. Apple’s premium in both desktops and laptops is so high that I suspect it can introduce new models at lower price points without looking like the bargain basement. But we’ll have to see.
Apple’s pricing for its new line of iPods shows a fair bit of confidence. It kept the $149 entry price point for the Nano line, its most popular. It did drop the starting price point for the Touch from $299 to $229, presumably in an effort to lure more people to step up to the more expensive model. Of course, there is no reason that Apple couldn’t drop prices on a model or two between now and Thanksgiving if things are really slow.
Apple has long had a strong and clear approach to pricing, and I wouldn’t bet that it gets too far out of whack even in this crazy time.
The future of the music, video and phone business is much harder to gauge. The growth of the standalone music-player business is slowing. The iPhone has had a great start, but it is still unclear how big of a business it can build for phones and other multi-function connected devices (like the Touch). How important this question becomes depends on how much the market for stand-alone audio and video players declines. Some people will still want stand-alone players; some will want all-in-one devices. We don’t know the balance, but I assume that Apple’s share of dedicated media players will always be higher than its share of phones.
The other potential new market is for video in the living room. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has described its Apple TV product as a hobby. I’d describe it more as an option. Because of Apple’s brand, its position in music and its iPod video business, Apple has as good a position as anyone to be a player in Internet-delivered video. So far, this hasn’t been significant, but it still could be.
There are some rumors flying around that Apple is going to change its Apple TV offering Tuesday. That’s not crazy, as the line hasn’t changed in a while. But there certainly are no signs of any major announcement. But this is Apple, so who knows.
All in, if I were an Apple investor, I would be more concerned about how Apple reacts to the consumer slowdown that simply the fact that demand may be off somewhat.
Q: It's time to upgrade from my two-year-old computer, but I really don't want to use Windows Vista on a new PC.
Is it possible to have Windows XP installed on a newer machine? A tech seemed to say that several features of new computer chips would not be recognized by XP, and that I'd be buying a bigger, faster computer that would not work faster. Is that really the case?
A: You won't have a problem running a standard version of Windows XP on the estimated 80 per cent of new PCs that come with 32-bit chips, meaning they can locate data in memory using addresses that are 32 data bits long.
The other 20 per cent of new PCs use 64-bit chips that can handle longer data addresses (and more memory) but cause compatibility issues with earlier software.
You can buy a new 32-bit Windows Vista PC, then install a copy of XP that you buy separately online. (Do a Google search for "buy Windows XP.") For installation directions see vistasupport.mvps. org/install_windows_xp_on_machine_running_vista.htm.
Q: What's the best way to transfer songs from a minidisk to iTunes? I have several songs on a minidisk that I'd like to listen to on my iPod.
A: The minidisk, an early 1990s Sony disk for recording "near-CD" quality digital music, never caught on because of its high player cost and scarcity of music titles. It was largely replaced by recordable audio CDs and MP3 digital music players.
Transferring data directly from a minidisk to a PC is difficult and requires expensive equipment. An easier solution is to play the minidisk on its own player, and record it on your PC (as MP3 files) using the microphone jack. This involves using $21 to $32 worth of cables and audio software. For details, see the British website www.vinyl-2-pc.co.uk.
Q: When I try to print lists of stocks from Yahoo using Internet Explorer, the printout is missing some of the data, even though the print preview screen shows the whole page. What should I do?
A: I suspect you have an older version of Internet Explorer (version 5.5), which had the problem you describe. If so, solve the problem by going to the View menu, selecting Encoding and clicking to erase the arrow beside Auto-Select. Or download Internet Explorer 7.0 at www.microsoft.com/downloads.
From : http://www.canada.com/
The Foggy Road Ahead
So, if licensing and support aren't likely to be major issues for XP prior to Windows 7's arrival, what types of problems could IT departments encounter by skipping Vista? That question is difficult to answer definitively right now.
For some companies, Vista offers functionality that they can't -- or would rather not -- do without. "The big features that I really liked out of Vista were the searching capabilities, which are very powerful for us," says Scott Knowles, director of technology and education at Kinex Medical Co. LLC in Waukesha, Wis. "We deal with hundreds of thousands of patient records, and that's a nice thing to have."
Another nice thing to have for many IT professionals is Vista's built-in security, which observers agree is much better than that of XP -- even if it can sometimes be hard to manage.
"For all of its flaws, you don't really hear about it being hacked a whole lot," Torres says. But Microsoft has, over time, fixed most of the many security problems that dogged XP for years. "Complaints are dying down about XP," Torres notes.
Nevertheless, XP could become more vulnerable the longer it remains the enterprise's OS of choice.
"Any product that sits around for that long, the vector of attack is just going to continue to grow," Murphy says. "People are using things in new ways -- there's more mobility with Web 2.0. All that stuff is increasing the number of people who are going to try to attack XP. If I keep throwing balls at the target, I'm eventually going to hit the target."
DeGroot agrees, although he notes that Microsoft isn't likely to let security problems plague XP. "I couldn't say there was no security risk [in sticking with XP]," he says. "It's possible that there is some. Presumably we're talking about a security risk that was present in both Vista and XP, and Microsoft might move faster to fix it in Vista." However, he notes, that's "not likely" given XP's near-90 percent market share.
And Torres adds that while Vista might have better built-in security, companies learned how to secure XP long ago and generally don't need Vista's native protection. "Every company runs a bidirectional firewall," he says.
Still, unforeseen security risks could linger for companies that don't move to Vista, as could another unforeseen factor -- technology advancements from Microsoft. In recent years, Microsoft has merged "back-office" functions with Microsoft Office through Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. SharePoint is now a billion-dollar business for Microsoft and has proven popular for its ability to expose back-office data to Office 2007 applications.
While SharePoint's more useful data-merging capabilities do largely require Office 2007 to function, they don't require Vista. And Office 2007 runs just fine with XP, users say. "We've seen Office 2007 do great under XP," says John Bowden, CIO at Clearfield, Utah-based LifeTime Products Inc. Bowden's company is sticking with XP and is unlikely to move to Vista, he says.
Of course, all of that could change if Microsoft decides to require Vista for certain SharePoint capabilities. And that's another risk of sticking with XP-missing out on forthcoming Microsoft innovation that could conceivably be Vista-only.
"Microsoft always pitches the tightening integration between Windows, Office and the former BackOffice," says NET(net) Inc.'s Braden. "You'd miss out on that future functionality."
It's hard, however, to say exactly what that future functionality might be. "The problem is Microsoft has become so tight about sharing the roadmaps," Braden continues. "You can have Dell come in and give you a hardware roadmap as far out as Intel is willing to plan. Microsoft won't do that."
By the same token, while SharePoint functionality could someday make staying with XP a disadvantage, Software as a Service -- otherwise known as cloud computing -- could render the OS debate moot.
Murphy notes that Microsoft requiring Vista for future SharePoint functionality could lead to something of a customer revolt. "If they said you couldn't do x and y unless you had Vista -- as a CTO, I'm going to sit there and say, 'That's not the best architectural implementation that you want to have.'"
Nevertheless, running 10-year-old XP technology in 2011 could put some companies behind the innovation curve. Whether it will or not remains to be seen.
Betting It All on Windows 7
Unless companies move to the Mac or an open source platform, there's one thing they almost assuredly won't be doing if they take a pass on Vista -- and that's skipping Windows 7. Given speculation that Windows 7 could very well be based on Vista technology, the jump from XP might end up being a significant one.
"It's going to be a very, very significant shift going from XP to Windows 7," Murphy says. "That's going to be a gigantic step. I think people should take this time to begin the migration process."
That leap is one of the reasons why Kinex Medical's Knowles chose to move his company to Vista -- to have a more incremental climb up the OS ladder. "Ultimately you're going to upgrade anyway," Knowles says. "If you're going to upgrade, I tend to think that you can make some of the smaller steps early and it seems to go a little smoother."
But XP's continued market domination and the relatively speedy arrival of Windows 7 could mean that lots of companies will be jumping straight from XP to the new OS. And if that's the case, Microsoft would likely need to help expedite that process.
"We'll have to see how the migration tools turn out," Bowden says. "I'm not sure what they're going to provide, but [we're] not the only company in that situation."
Directions on Microsoft's DeGroot contends that the jump from XP to Windows 7 might not be so high after all. "I'd actually argue it's a smaller jump," he says. "Probably the biggest problem with Vista in terms of standardizing it for many enterprises is the fact that it won't run on a lot of older hardware. The notion of a company-wide rollout of an OS that doesn't run on 40 percent of your machines is a really daunting idea."
DeGroot contends Microsoft learned its lesson from Vista, which is it can't leap significantly ahead on the hardware requirements and expect everybody in business to go out and buy new hardware.
"There's a very strong probability that the hardware requirements for Windows 7 will not be higher than those for Vista," DeGroot continues. "By 2011, the oldest machines will be Vista-era machines. Even if you're looking at a five-year hardware-refresh cycle, by the time you get around to deploying Windows 7 you'll have very few pieces of hardware that can't run it."
Beyond that, Murphy says, virtualization technology should help with the XP-to-Windows 7 leap. "Windows 7 will do a lot of capitalization on virtualization," he says. "If you can take your XP legacy apps, build virtual machines around those and use them in Windows 7, it's a little bit of a safety net."
The 10-Year OS
While the immediate risks of sticking with XP seem manageable, it's the unknown -- support issues, third-party apps, potential Vista-only innovation -- that might concern IT professionals who are keeping their companies on XP. Still, none of those factors is likely to drive IT departments running scared from XP into the open arms of Vista.
And with Windows 7 possibly on the way within a couple of years, XP might not have to live that much longer. "We should be seeing Windows 7 betas early in 2009 if [Microsoft is] going to ship it in 2010," DeGroot says. "You should be evaluating Windows 7. Save yourself the grief -- don't work on a deployment strategy for Vista. You're barely a year away from Windows 7."
In all likelihood, a large percentage of IT departments won't need any convincing on that point. "XP is a great platform -- we love XP," Abdulhayoglu says. "As long as [Microsoft] keeps it up-to-date, there's no vulnerability that I know of that really rules it out."
Well, not right now, anyway. But 10 years is a long time for anything to last these days.
From : http://redmondmag.com/
It's not that those things don't work anymore -- it's just that either wear and tear or advancements in technology have made them undesirable, if not obsolete. It's odd, then, that Windows XP, a signature product in what is supposed to be one of the fastest-paced, most innovative markets -- enterprise technology -- might very well last a decade. This, despite the fact that its successor, Windows Vista, has been out for almost two years.
Microsoft released XP seven years ago this month, and the operating system is still going strong. So strong, in fact, that its popularity is cannibalizing adoption of its main competitor, Vista. Nowhere are XP's strengths and Vista's weaknesses more apparent than in the enterprise, where, at press time, XP's market-share number was still 87 percent, according to Forrester Research Inc., while Vista's sat at less than 10 percent. To put XP's run in perspective, consider that it came out on Oct. 25, 2001 -- two days after Apple Inc. launched the first iPod. But while the original iPod looks a bit clunky next to its successors -- and not many users would downgrade from, say, an iPod Touch to the 2001 offering -- XP is still the operating system of choice for enterprise IT departments, and some IT managers are actively choosing it over Vista. In August, InfoWorld and Devil Mountain Software Inc. calculated that 35 percent of all enterprise machines that shipped with Vista wound up being "downgraded" to XP. Other IT departments still using XP simply haven't bought new PCs and won't for a while in a flagging economy. What this all adds up to is an extended lifespan for XP -- one that could, in some IT departments, last a solid decade. Sure, not a lot of companies jumped right to XP in 2001, but even those that signed on in 2004 or 2005 will be giving XP quite a ride if they plan to make it last until Windows 7 arrives, currently due in late 2009 or early 2010. "A decade is a long time to be using [XP]," says Paul DeGroot, senior analyst with Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash. "A lot of companies won't replace XP until 2011. It's not as though customers have been deliberately hanging on to this old fossil of an operating system. They didn't have a choice for six years, and then they got a choice that didn't turn out to be very compelling." The reasons for Vista's lack of momentum are legion and well-documented -- hassles with application compatibility and PC memory requirements top the list. But, although Microsoft and third-party vendors have alleviated a lot of Vista's problems, some enterprises have simply decided to skip the OS altogether. And that means either looking at alternatives such as open source and the Mac OS, or, more likely, keeping XP up and running until Windows 7 comes out. Living at the Mercy of Microsoft Those companies with Software Assurance (SA) subscriptions can downgrade at no extra cost, experts say. For those not on SA, Microsoft is allowing OEMs to offer free downgrades to XP from Vista Business and Vista Ultimate, and major OEMs such as Dell Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lenovo have embraced that offer. Of course, that might not always be the case -- and therein lies one of the potential, if unlikely, pitfalls of sticking with XP. "The big question is, how tightly is Microsoft going to tie the OEMs' hands with regard to OEM downgrade rights?" says Scott Braden, licensing expert and vice president of Microsoft services at Holland, Mich.-based consulting firm NET(net) Inc. If Microsoft really wanted to stem XP's growth, it could do so, Braden says, by pressuring OEMs to curb downgrade programs or ceasing its downgrade-license program. If Microsoft moved in that direction, companies would have a very hard time completing hardware upgrades and still running XP. Braden, however, doesn't see Microsoft playing hardball with its customers given the company's historical battles with antitrust watchdogs in the United States and Europe. "I think Microsoft is approaching it the right way with this new Vista ad campaign," Braden says, referring to Microsoft's new multimedia effort to plug Vista to consumers and businesses. "They realize that they have a messaging problem. If they play carrot and stick games and use more stick than carrot, they're going to end up back in court again." Support is another issue that might keep some XP fans up at night. Microsoft could, conceivably, stop or slow its support for XP in order to push customers to Vista. "The killer blow is Microsoft patching," says Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and chief security architect at Comodo Group Inc., a Jersey City, N.J.-based vendor of authentication and security applications that's still using XP. "If Microsoft said today, 'Next month, we're not going to patch XP anymore,' that would leave us no alternative but to move to Vista." However, Microsoft released Service Pack 3 (SP3) for XP in April and is unlikely, experts say, to stop supporting an operating system that still dominates in market share. "If I had to make a wild guess, [Microsoft] probably wouldn't cut off [XP support] until Windows 7 SP1 comes out," says Derek Torres, a Paris-based author who has written and co-written several books on Windows XP and Windows Vista, including "The Unofficial Guide to Windows Vista" (Wiley, 2007). Torres also notes that should Vista ultimately overtake XP in terms of popularity, Microsoft is still likely to carry support for the older OS for a few more years. "In 2008, they just now stopped supporting [Windows] Me," he says. The other parties that could play a major role in moving users to Vista -- and hampering XP's survival -- are third-party vendors. If they begin writing their applications for Vista and not XP, users of the older OS will struggle to stay current. But, again, that seems unlikely given XP's market dominance, and Abdulhayoglu says that his company hasn't even thought about ditching XP development. "Nobody is going to ignore such a huge market," he says. "We only recently stopped supporting [Windows] 9x; we only stopped writing for it in 2007. When are we going to stop writing for XP? I can't see it in the next few years." In fact, if anything, some third parties are wondering whether they'll support Vista at all. "They're also having the same conversation that IT people are having: 'Do I want to port my code to Vista, or do I want to wait for Windows 7?'" says Kevin Murphy, CTO of Network Engines Inc. (NEI), a Canton, Mass.-based maker of appliance technology.
One reason XP is still racking up sales is that it's not hard to get. Microsoft officially stopped selling it on most PCs at the end of June, but the company is offering downgrade licenses that let IT departments move back to XP, even with volume licensing agreements.
According to Lauder, the Sensuous widget allows you to:
Find your Sensuous style – Take the quiz to find out if you are Casually Chic, Glitz and Glamour, Back to Nature or Oh So Romantic.
Watch Sensuous model videos – Elizabeth Hurley, Carolyn Murphy and Hilary Rhoda talk about what ‘Sensuous’ means to them, and see behind-the-scenes footage from the ad campaign.
Gain exclusive access to the Sensuous style newsfeed – We’ve partnered with Style.com, Concierge.com and Epicurious.com to offer users the latest news on fashion, travel and food.
The widget is available to download from http://www.sensuousis.com/widget/ . More information about the Sensuous fragrance can be found in the Basenotes Fragrance Directory.
Nvidia has settled a class action lawsuit that alleges it conspired with AMD to fix graphics chip prices.
The proposed settlement, outlined in the company's latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), offers initial plaintiffs $112,500 and a further $1.7m to all the others who subsequently signed up when the lawsuit attained class-action status.
Nvidia's financial statement indicates it would pay $850,000 into that $1.7m fund - it's not so stated, but it's clear that it hopes the remainder will come from AMD. This package requires the approval of the court. If it's so approved, it would entail the dismissal of all claims on Nvidia by class-action plaintiffs. It does not cover their legal costs.
The out-of-court deal was accepted on 9 September by the plaintiffs who launched the lawsuit before it attained class-action status. Again, the agreement involves the dismissal of all claims made against Nvidia.
But not AMD - unless it too has cut such a deal, the action against it will proceed.
The lawsuit was brought against Nvidia and AMD in July. It alleged the two companies "conspired to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize prices of GPUs sold in the United States". It also said that they "colluded to coordinate the timing of new product introductions that were based on similar, competing technologies which also had the effect of fixing, raising, maintaining, and stabilizing GPU prices".
The case sought compensation for anyone who purchased an Nvidia or AMD graphics card between 4 December 2002 - before AMD acquired ATI - and 7 November 2007.
You can read the original complaint here (PDF).
From : http://www.channelregister.co.uk/
Tag Technorati : Nvidia, AMD, ATi, SEC
Nokia, the No. 1 cell phone maker in the world, is close to selling its computer security hardware unit, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The company has been in talks to sell the business to a financial investor, but Nokia did not provide its name.
The company also intends to quit making software for business
customers. In a statement Monday, the cell phone maker said that it
would no longer develop or market its own "behind-the-firewall business
mobility solutions." Instead, the company plans to use outside
providers such as Microsoft, IBM and Cisco. The company will "redirect
the freed-up resources to a service that pushes e-mail to consumers'
cell phones," the Journal story said (subscription required).
"We have very strong relationships with industry leading
enterprise technology partners such as Cisco and Microsoft, as well as
a broad range of operator and retail channel partners," Niklas
Savander, executive vice president of services and software at Nokia,
said in a statement. "Together with them, we will use our expertise in
devices, as well as the combined channel footprint and customer base,
to deliver a range of unbeatable end-to-end offerings for business."
The moves will enable Nokia to concentrate on what it calls "the
renewal of its business mobility strategy." Savander, in an interview
with Reuters on Monday, said: "We believe that with a narrower agenda
we can make a bigger impact."
Earlier this month, the company announced plans to expand the number of devices that would be able to access Microsoft corporate e-mail--a move that appeared to be aimed squarely at rival smartphone maker Research In Motion.
From : http://news.cnet.com/
Apple, beware: It looks like Nokia is getting ready to launch its fabled "iPhone-killer" as early as this week.
Code-named "Tube," the device seems set to debut at the end of the week, according to one source close to the situation. News reports also suggest that the new phone will form part of a music-themed event in London on Thursday. That could mean it will dovetail with Nokia's (nyse: NOK - news - people ) fledgling music download service, "Comes With Music," which was announced in early September. (See "Nokia Woos Cash-Strapped Music Lovers.") Nokia has declined to comment on the details of the event.
Even though the iPhone already presents a formidable challenge to handset-makers looking for some touch-screen action, Nokia seems to be aiming at a slightly different tier of customers than Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) enjoys. The Finnish firm has already said that its upcoming touch phone will be a "mid-tier" device, probably sitting in the $200 to $300 bracket, leaving Apple and Samsung to fight over the high-end touch-screen space. This might just give Nokia the edge at a time when consumers are tightening their belts.
"With the softening that we are seeing in the high end, concentrating more on the mass market might be a clever thing to do," said Carolina Milanesi, analyst with Gartner Research in Surrey, England. She told Forbes.com that if Nokia's device ended up as part of the "Comes With Music" series, it would be an additional incentive for consumers looking to save a few pennies.
Nokia has managed to get major labels like Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Warner Music Group (nyse: WMG - news - people ) signed up to "Comes With Music," which will allow users to download and keep as many songs as they want from the handset-maker's music store for a flat annual fee. But precisely which network operators will support "Comes With Music" is still unclear, which could be a sore point if the "Tube" does indeed boast the service. So far, British retailer Carphone Warehouse has agreed to sell the inaugural "Comes With Music" phone, but operators are clearly reluctant to allow Nokia to cannibalize their own services to such a vast extent.
Details of the phone's specifications are non-existent, but it is likely to boast third-generation (3G) data speeds and the usual camera/global positioning system smart phone trimmings. As for geographical reach, a Europe-only launch seems likely for the moment.
But the true test of Nokia's touch-screen attack will be whether the phone itself works well. Multi-touch functions, responsive "haptic" touch feedback, an intuitive user interface--these are reasons why consumers still lust after Apple's iPhone, independent of the price tag. Nokia will have to prove that it can handle a fluid touch-screen technology if it wants to compete with Apple, even at a price that more consumers can afford.
From : http://www.forbes.com/
Tag Technorati Sony, Nokia, iPhone, Apple
Sony Ericsson has presented an environmentally friendly concept mobile. The GreenHeart concept considers the entire lifecycle of the product. It includes a bioplastic housing and a keyboard made of recycled plastic. The charger consumes only 3.5 mW of power in trickle mode – a significant improvement over the charger that comes with Nokia's eco-mobile, the 3110 Evolve, which draws 70 mW.
The company is also taking packaging and the user manual into account: packaging will be smaller and lighter, since the manufacturer would use HTML help instead of including a printed manual. The "Ecomate" game that comes preinstalled on the handset would give customers information on environmental protection. But the GreenHeart is not a mature product yet. Sony Ericsson wants to determine which individual parts to include in the production handset only after talks with its partners and customers.
Sony Ericsson announced that it has set up special collection points to dispose of handsets in an environmentally friendly way or to recycle them. The company has already set up some 500 collection points in India, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Singapore, the US, and Mexico. By 2009, the company intends to expand the program to include every country where it does business. However, Sony Ericsson only wants to set up its own collection points in countries in which the existing recycling system is considered inadequate. (anw/c't)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Zvents, a local online search engine and advertising network, said on Tuesday that it had raised $24 million from several investors, including Nokia's venture capital unit, AT&T Inc and digital map data company Navteq.
Zvents plans to use the money to expand its ad network of local listings and to invest in its technology, which helps people using mobile telephones and other devices find information on events.
The technology focuses on events such as store sales, dining specials, sporting events and concerts, and lets local businesses pair their ads with those events.
Other investors in this round include Vantage Point Venture Partners and Red Rock Ventures, which have previously invested in the company. Those two partners, as well as NetService Ventures, already had invested about $7.2 million in Zvents.
The San Mateo, California-based company, which employs about 55 people, has an ad network that includes more than 250 media, advertising and mobile device partners. They include Viacom's mtvU campus guides online network and Microsoft Corp's MSN CityGuides, as well as U.S. newspaper publishers McClatchy Co and the New York Times Co.
Zvents plans to hold steady on its venture-funding course -- at least for now, Chief Executive Ethan Stock said.
"Either an [initial public offering] or an acquisition is more or less inevitable," he said.
From : http://in.reuters.com/
Tag Technorati AT&T, Nokia, Zvent, MSN, Micrsoft, NetService, Navteq
Intel's
next-generation WiMax module, called Evans Peak, is on display at this
week's Ceatec exhibition in Chiba, Japan. Due to hit the market as part
of the Moorestown chip platform next year, Evans Peak will support more
WiMax profiles than Intel's current chipset and add support for
Bluetooth and GPS.
Intel's current WiMax chipset, formerly called
Echo Peak, has limited WiMax support. The module only supports the
2.5GHz version of the wireless broadband technology, which means it
cannot be used in some markets where WiMax is widely deployed,
including South Korea and Pakistan. These countries use the 2.3GHz and
3.5GHz versions of the technology, respectively.
The 2.5GHz
version of WiMax is just now hitting the market. Sprint Nextel's Xohm
service, which uses the 2.5GHz WiMax profile, officially began service
in Baltimore, Maryland, on Monday, and the operator plans to extend its
service to two more U.S. cities by the end of this year.
Evans
Peak will support WiMax that uses spectrum from 2.3GHz to 2.7GHz and
3.4GHz to 3.8GHz, according to a list of specifications provided by
Intel. By comparison, Echo Peak modules only support spectrum from
2.5GHz to 2.7GHz.
Evans Peak adds support for Bluetooth 2.1 and
GPS in the same module. It also supports 802.11 wireless networking,
which is already available with the Echo Peak module family.
The
Evans Peak WiMax module will be part of the Moorestown computing
platform, due to be released next year. Moorestown includes the next
version of the Atom processor, called Lincroft, and the Langwell
chipset.
Evans Peak may also appear in future versions of
Centrino 2 laptops. WiMax support is an option with Centrino 2, but the
limited WiMax support of the Echo Peak modules and the limited coverage
offered by 2.5GHz WiMax networks means this option has yet to appear in
large numbers of machines.
From : http://www.pcworld.com/
ARM, along with Chartered Semiconductor and Samsung, are planning to use processor technology created by IBM’s research alliance to develop new lines of system-on-a-chip platforms for future generations of mobile devices such as cell phones and other consumer electronics.
ARM
and its two partners are planning to use the high-K metal gate
technology that IBM, along with its research partners, have developed
during the last several years. This technology will then allow ARM to
design and create SOC platforms that are manufactured at both 32- and
28-nanometers. (A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.)
Chartered, Samsung
and ARM announced their agreement to use the IBM technology Sept. 29,
but the agreement did not specify when these new SOC platforms would
actually enter the market.
While ARM will use the high-k metal gate technology to develop new
types of intellectual property that will enhance the power and
performance of its own Cortex processors, the company also is planning
to develop new logic, memory interface technologies that will be used
by IBM, Chartered and Samsung.
By using IBM’s
technology and research, ARM is looking to develop a new ways to
enhance its chip design for a range of embedded products, including
cell phones and other mobile devices. While other processor companies
typically manufacture their own CPUs, ARM is developing the
intellectual property and designs that IBM, Samsung and Chartered can
then turn around and offer to their customers.
While ARM is widely known for its low-power chips that are used in a
wide range of devices, the race to even smaller and smaller CPUs is
challenging the way chip companies deal with power leakage–the
electricity wasted while the chip’s transistors are idle–in these very
small processors. By reducing power leakage, the chip companies can
also increase the performance of their processors.
IBM’s high-k metal gate technology solves the power leakage problems
in these small processors. Intel has also developed its own high-k
metal gate design that uses the element Hafnium to reduce leakage.
Intel is expected to release its own line of 32-nm processors in 2009,
with 22-nm chips to follow in 2011. (IBM and its partners have not
specifically detailed their method behind the development of their
high-k metal gate technology.)
While Intel’s processors are geared more toward notebook and desktop
PCs, as well as server systems, the chip giant also has plans to push
deeper into the embedded market, where it's likely to challenge
companies such as ARM. Intel’s goal is to unify this new embedded market around its x86 processor microarchitecture,
while creating new types of mobile devices and consumer electronics.
Although Intel is first concentrating on SOC platforms that use its
Pentium M core, it will eventually use its Atom processor as the base
of its embedded portfolio.
While Intel has done most of its research on its own, IBM has developed an alliance of partners that are working on developing chips that are built on 32-nm manufacturing. These partners include NEC, Chartered, Freescale, Infineon Technologies, Samsung, STMicroelectronics and Toshiba.
From : http://www.eweek.com/
The appointment of Lt.
Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha as head of Inter-Services Intelligence was
among several changes in what appeared to be a major shake up of the
military leadership.
In his most recent capacity as director
general of military operations, Pasha oversaw military offensives
against insurgents in the nuclear-armed nation's restive northwest.
The
region is home to Taliban and al-Qaida militants involved in attacks on
American and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as rising strikes
within Pakistan.
The statement late Monday gave no more details
about Pasha, but Pakistani defense analyst Talat Masood described him
as "highly professional."
Pasha replaces Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj,
who was in the position about a year after being appointed by former
President Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf, a former army chief and
U.S. ally, was forced to quit the presidency in August amid threats of
impeachment by the fledgling civilian government.
The statement listed several new postings that are expected to take effect in several weeks.
Masood
said the changes appeared to be an effort by Gen. Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani—who succeeded Musharraf as army chief and once headed the ISI
himself—to consolidate his control over the military.
U.S. intelligence India and Afghanistan—and reportedly the Pakistani intelligence helped Pakistan also was one of the Officially, In July, the Pakistani government reportedly tried to bring the Pakistan has Still, The army statement said Taj has been appointed Corps Commander for Gujranwala. Maj. From : http://www.mercurynews.com
agencies suspect rogue elements in the ISI have been giving Taliban
militants sensitive information to aid them in their growing insurgency
in Afghanistan.
U.S.—also suspect the agency of involvement in the July 7 bombing
outside India's Embassy in Kabul that killed more than 60 people.
Pakistan denies the allegations.
create the Taliban militia, many of whose leaders and recruits studied
at religious schools in Pakistan.
few countries that gave diplomatic recognition to the Taliban's
fundamentalist rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Pakistan allied itself with the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks,
but observers say elements in the ISI may still be aiding Taliban
fighters in part to retain them as assets against longtime rival India.
ISI under the control of the Interior Ministry, but quickly reversed
the decision apparently after military dissent.
spent about half of its 61-year history under army rule, but Kayani has
indicated he wants to keep the military out of politics and
rehabilitate its image after Musharraf's nine-year rule.
the army chief has shown an independent streak, and has condemned in
harsh terms U.S. crossborder strikes in Pakistan's northwest.
Murad Khan, an army spokesman, said Tuesday that Maj. Gen. Javed Iqbal
would succeed Pasha as director general of military operations. He
declined to provide any details about Iqbal.