Big Day for GMail

The one field that Google still trails Yahoo! by far is that of the email services, where of the two, Yahoo! is king and Google isn’t even close to being a serious runner up, when it comes to the numbers of users.

That’s nothing, says Google, I’ll just add
some features and work my way up to the top. But by doing this, besides the latest update that added rich emoticons and group chat, the question that burns a hole through all my GMail related thoughts remains without an answer: will there be a client for Gtalk or has the project been completely dropped? Time will tell, but the time it takes them seems to be just more than bearable.

Group chat is the first addition and it can be accessed by clicking the "Group Chat" from the "Options" menu, while chatting. The next step is to enter the names of those you’d want to add and that’s about it, you’re in your very own chat room. All the previous functions, like chat archiving and taking the chat off the record, are also implemented and work just fine.

The smilies that have been added are actually what had been bothering me for a long time, the blasted buggers just wouldn’t look pretty and there was no news update about somebody working on them. I guess it was worth it after all, they do look pretty cool now. The button that opens the available emoticon menu is nice and fits in with the overall appearance of the chat window, and it also gives you the option to select the style of the smilies you send, old dull style or the two newer rich emoticon styles.

The feature only works with GMail 2.0 and Internet Explorer 6.

It’s been 25 years and a couple of months since the first smilie face has been drawn by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman, and look how far it’s come.

Vista SP1 – Too Little, Too Late?

While Service Pack 1 had the potential to be the second coming for Windows Vista, Microsoft chose to sweep the refresh under the rug in order to focus both home and corporate customers on the RTM version of the operating system. With 88 million Vista copies shipped worldwide after the platform was released to manufacturing back in November 2006, the latest Windows client follows in the footsteps of the predecessor main cash cows from the Redmond company. Microsoft in fact applauded Vista for its record revenue in the 2006 Fiscal Year and in the first quarter of FY 2007. Still, the operating system fails to deliver a convincing performance, and speaking of performance, Service Pack 1 has already been crucified for delivering nothing on top of Vista RTM. The last time that Microsoft actually talked performance improvements for Vista SP1 was in the white paper for the September release of the
first Beta of the service pack.

"The following list describes some of the performance improvements that Windows Vista SP1 will include:

- Improves the speed of copying and extracting files.
- Improves the time to become active from Hibernate and Resume modes.
- Improves the performance of domain-joined PCs when operating off the domain; in the current release version of Windows Vista, users would experience long delays when opening the File dialog box.
- Improves performance of Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, reducing CPU utilization and speeding JavaScript parsing.
- Improves battery life by reducing CPU utilization by not redrawing the screen as frequently, on certain computers.
- Improves the logon experience by removing the occasional 10-second delay between pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and the password prompt displaying.
- Addresses an issue in the current version of Windows Vista that makes browsing network file shares consume significant bandwidth and not perform as fast as expected," Microsoft revealed.

But while the company is not going public with the figures for Vista SP1 improvements, Mary Jo Foley got a hold of some internal data associated with the service pack. In this context, Microsoft plans to boost copying speeds between locations on the same Vista computer by 25%, and to speed up remote file transfers to Vista SP1 from a non-Vista Windows operating system by 45%. On top of this, Vista SP1 machines will be able to swap files for up to 50% faster than the RTM version of the operating system could. In addition, the periods of time Vista SP1 spends on standby resuming, image reading and user login will also be kicked up a notch. SP1 users will no longer be asphyxiated in User Account Control prompts when managing items in protected locations, third-party diagnostic programs will be better integrated following the release of the service pack and the sign in process will be complemented with the traditional password hint. Overall, it is obvious that Microsoft is doing nothing more than soften all the rough edges of Vista. It remains to be seen if it will not end up being a case of too little too late.

IT Professionals Ignore Major Security Measures

I'm a pro, I know what I'm doing,' a famous quote says. Well, this time it's somehow different because the IT professionals ignore major security measures and publish their information on very large and popular websites. According to ITPro, a study conducted by
Microsoft and security vendor Facetime revealed that 35 percent of the IT professionals posted their birth date on the web while 27 percent of them uploaded even more valuable information such as addresses. In comparison with the professionals, the employees are more careful with their private details as only 29 percent of them join web networks.

"We assume IT pros are more technical and aware of things like phishing, but our research suggests the contrary," said Stephen Lamb, IT security expert at Microsoft, according to ITPro. "People don't appreciate the risks. We need to raise awareness that things people believe are only open to a group of friends are in the public domain," Chris Boyd, security research manager at Facetime, added for the same source.

Obviously, the most important threat is represented by the social networking websites which attack millions of consumers every day. For example, Facebook said at the time of signing the deal with Microsoft that about 250,000 new users are creating accounts on its social network. In fact, it's well known that large websites such as MySpace and Facebook are real threats when it comes to the information provided by the registered users because some malicious persons could use the details for dangerous activities.

"We [IT pros] think we know it all, and we don't put enough thought into security. I had a call from an IT professional who was caught by a MySpace music group hack. This guy said 'I know what I'm doing' but he switched his brain off," the Facetime expert added.

Soon, You'll Be Able to Turn Your PC into a TiVo Digital Video Recorder

Digital video recorders have become extremely popular over the past few years, as they allow users to watch their favorite shows even if they're not in front of the TV exactly when aforesaid programs are aired. And although DVRs are traditionally standalone devices,
it seems that things are about to change, since the famous TiVo and software-developer Nero have just entered a partnership that might bring the concept of digital video recordings a lot closer to our own personal computers.

Thus, according to the specific terms of this agreement, Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer. Capitalizing on the growing PC TV tuner market, it will answer the consumer demand for a trusted PC-based DVR experience for use with the estimated 50.8 million PC TV tuners that will be sold worldwide by 2011, according to In-Stat research report published in April 2007.

"The partnership with TiVo extends the TV experience for the connected digital home, enabling easy access anytime, anywhere to the most extensive TV content," said Richard Lesser, CEO, Nero AG. "Our core technology enables the creation of new categories in consumer electronics, changing the way that users interact with both hardware and software. Our proven technology adds media functionality to the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computing and software products."

But Nero's CEO is not the only one to highly appreciate this deal, Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo, having a few things to say as well. "This agreement provides TiVo with an opportunity to deliver its interface and differentiated feature set globally via the PC, enabling TiVo to use all avenues of mass distribution – from consumer electronics, to cable and satellite boxes and soon, the PC. We are thrilled to work with Nero, a highly successful leader in software solutions for the PC who has the ability to develop a state-of-the-art program centered on the TiVo platform that will bring the same personalized entertainment experience to domestic and international consumers on their personal computers."

Of course, it remains to be seen just what the result of this new agreement will be , but taking into consideration the fact that its basis is a pretty sound one (the increase demand for digital video recording solutions), the future solution will most likely be quite a successful one.

The Apple Heaven in Turmoil

Apple product users all around the world have always been quite pleased with the standard of quality Apple has always maintained. Most probably that’s the main reason why the Apple fan-boys (and the Mac ones in particular) have appeared. But there are problems that shake even the most dedicated Apple users and, unfortunately for the Cupertino based company, these problems seem to appear these days more often than any other time in the past.

Not long ago we’ve all heard rumors about the MacBooks that got flawed hard drives and today Apple has declared they are looking into this issue affecting their products. Now the time has come for the 20 and 24-inch iMac displays to take the main role in a new saga of faulty Apple branded hardware.

According to a number of users on the Apple discussion board the two display models suffer from a gradient like defect that makes the colors on the bottom look much lighter than the ones on the top part of the desktop. While in the 20-inch model this has been observed to affect the display from top to bottom, in the 24-inch models the problem seems to go from left to right so a possible video card problem can’t be taken seriously.

As it seems (according to Scott Konradt, one of the users on the Apple forum) the cause of all these problems might be the TN film-based matrix LCDs that feature much cheaper parts than the IPS matrix based ones that one can find in the Apple Cinema Display line of products.

KRitchie, another poster on the Apple board of discussions, said that "I went to the Apple Store yesterday to look for this issue. I had to wait as every iMac had someone looking at them! I finally got on one, set the desktop to a single color and was able to observe what everyone is talking about. The top of the screen in darker than the bottom. Calibration helps the fading at the bottom but if I moved my head down the bottom would get darker but the top would get even more dark. There is a definite shift in color as you move your head around. This is just a low end screen that Apple has put into this model. I don't think most people will notice this affect but now that it's been pointed out I don't like it."

Therefore you can also test if this whole thing is true by going to the nearest Apple store and having a closer look at the iMacs put on display. If you follow KRitchie's steps you might have the same unpleasant surprise as he did.

Despite the fact that some people have declared they were satisfied with the image quality obtained on such imperfect displays after changing the color profile in the system preferences to the Adobe RGB (1998), a thing is certain: if you want to use your MacBook for anything else than browsing the web and listen to music you should be on your road to the Apple store to change it.

The bad news for you though is that the Apple stores will not recognize your display problems as something that should concern them and will charge you if you want it to be changed with a new and working properly one.

Now the question is: why would Apple, a company with a very high profit in the fourth quarter of 2007, try to avoid resolving their customers’ problems? Is this a sign that they don’t really care about their clients and choose to turn their heads the other way and leave their customers to deal with such hardware problems as they see fit? If this is the case then I have to say a lot of people around the world will change their opinion about Apple and the brand loyalty indices amongst the Apple users will fall drastically.

I’m not trying to put down Apple here but merely asking myself if the Cupertino employees and management are traversing a state of denial regarding the hardware problems the Apple products have been experiencing in the past two months or so.

If they do, they better jump out of it and get back to the Apple users with suitable solutions and, maybe, an apology instead of another fee to replace a product that has been flawed from start.

YouTube Closes Down Anti-Torture Activist’s Account

Google earlier admitted to giving up the IP of a blogger accused of defamation after revealing some info about a corruption and tax fraud case in which three councilmen were involved. YouTube seems to be trying to fill it’s papa’s shoes and closes down an account of an Egyptian resident that posted videos of brutal behavior by local police officers, voting irregularities and anti-government
demonstrations.

Wael Abbas’ channel currently reads "This account is suspended" and he confessed to Reuters that the Google-owned YouTube sent him an email announcing its action to come and based it on the fact that "there were lots of complaints about the content, especially the content of torture." Why would someone rather report such a fact instead of filing an official complaint? YouTube’s guidelines stating that "Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don’t post it" might be a starting point to understanding the Mountain View based company’s video sharing service’s decision but I sincerely doubt it.

It’s just that Google is supposedly on a mission to "organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible" and that gives me a hard time to understand what’s with the privacy issues it has. The images and video clips that Abbas had posted were interesting to organizations across the globe in a high degree and thus it needed to be there and be available until the end of time if need be and if the anti-torture activist’s voice would not be heard otherwise.

There are some sites available to those that have such images that depict abusive action by authorities or other human rights violations, like hub.witness.org but they don’t have nearly the amount of publicity or the reach that YouTube has. The great Google is not as open as it should be, apparently. Or at least as it says it is.

ASUS WL-160N – The Wireless Card for You

No one can deny that wireless networking is becoming increasingly popular over the older wired technologies and while most computer manufacturing companies are still lagging behind in adopting it as a default solution for connectivity, Asustek through its Asus brand takes the lead once more and introduces the WL-160N wireless card that is designed and manufactured with users satisfaction in mind.

The Asus WL-160N wireless card comes as a little marvel in its own right as it is currently the smallest mass manufactured piece of widely available computer hardware that is fully compatible with the new wireless networking standard, 802.11n. While supporting the cutting edge of wireless technology, this new card from Asus is also integrating support for
older protocols like 802.11b and 802.11g, making it valuable even for users that are not inclined to upgrade their network infrastructure to the latest available standard.

Coming in a slim and small overall package the Asus WL-160N wireless card is aimed at both desktop and mobile computer users and the latter will surely appreciate the handy and out-of-the-way design as well as the easy connectivity feature that makes the most of the "plug and play" features of the USB 2.0 standard. Thanks to its small form factor this new wireless card from Asus is easily fitted even in crammed spaces and as it integrates MIMO technology it is also able to send and receive signals over great distances while keeping the network throughput at over 100Mbps. This speed is exceeding even most wired networking solutions widely available and thanks to the great signal quality, the Asus WL-160N wireless card helps reduce deadspots while increasing the overall networking coverage when compared with the previous G standard.

As the Asus WL-160N wireless card is USB 2.0 and "plug and play" compatible it can work just as well on Microsoft Windows Vista( both the 32 and 64 bits editions) as it works on more exotic operating systems like Mac OS( versions 10.3 and 10.4 supported). As Windows XP is still one of the most popular operating systems around the world, this network card also offers integrated support for it and it natively works with a broad spectrum of WLAN functions like Zeroconfig or Media Sense.

The wireless card and its docking station



On the software side this new Asus networking card comes bundled with an easy to use wizard that will make the driver installation a snap and it will also help the novice computer user setup his network. Among the software utilities that can be found on the CD bundled with the Asus WL-160N wireless card there is the Mobile Control Center, which is a system wide tools integration utility, the Wireless Setting wizard that helps diagnose and configure a wireless network, the Mobile Manager tool which supports network profiling, as well as the Site Survey application. This last software application lets users quickly and easily browse the topology of their respective wireless network and collect different information about its nodes.

As a wireless network offers a more lax environment that a wired one, the new Asus card also provides native support for both ad-hoc networking as well as an infrastructure network mode that is more common in enterprise applications.

Following the general industry trend of increasing communications security, Asus integrates a number of advanced security features that are mandatory for any 802.11n compliant wireless networking device. Among these security features there are WEP, WPA, WPA2, TKIP, AES, WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK and for those users that feel that the default 64-bit encryption is not enough, the new Asus card also offers a higher 128-bits security feature.

As the Asus WL-160N wireless card is particularly well suited for use in a mobile operating environment on laptops or notebooks that lack integrated wireless networking cards the power consumption levels are important, and the manufacturing company is providing a piece of computer hardware that is especially kind to a mobile device's battery as it only needs 450 mA in Tx (transmission) mode and 300 mA in Rx (receiving) mode. Like any other wireless networking device this new Asus card also needs an antenna for sending and receiving data but unlike most other devices out there it comes with two antennas, both integrated into the PCB of the card itself in order to provide a smooth external appearance and minimize the risk of damage from rough handling.

For users' convenience, a LED is embedded into the new ASUS WL-160N wireless networking card and it shows the device's state like "acquired link" and activity. Also, the presence of a docking station is yet another good point for this new device as it helps both mobile and desktop computer users place the card in a good spot.

Leopard Ready Intel Software Tools

Intel, the world leader semiconductor company, has announced today the upgrade of their software tools for Apple’s latest operating system, the Mac OS X Leopard and the Xcode 3.0 development environment. The tools that have been optimized are the Intel Fortran compiler, the Intel C++ Compiler, the Intel Math Kernel Libraries, the Intel Performance Primitives and the Intel threading Building Blocks.

As Bertrand Serlet, the Apple Senior Vice President of software engineering declared "Leopard, Xcode and Intel's compilers give developers powerful new tools to squeeze even more performance out of the latest Intel processors. Intel's software works well in our Xcode environment, and the Intel engineering team does a great job supporting our Apple engineers and Mac OS X developers."

Although this might not seem to be something astonishing for the usual Joe, the geeks living amongst the ordinary people already have wet dreams about Intel compiler’s auto-parallelizing capabilities and the way they can take full advantage of Intel’s multi-core processors in multithreaded and more responsive applications.

They wouldn’t be the only ones that experience Nirvana-like states of mind because, as a number of other software development companies officials have declared, the Mac development community is praising Intel dedication in offering support to the Mac OS X software developers by continuously maintaining up to date the dedicated software tools.

Kevin Tureski, director of product development for Autodesk Media & Entertainment, declared that "One of the unique advantages of Autodesk Maya is that it runs on multiple platforms. Creative professionals have long had an affinity for Apple products, and the Maya software's availability on Apple's Mac OS X allows them to use their platform of choice. With Apple's switch to Intel processors and with multi-core Mac Pro machines becoming commonplace, we need compilers that allow us to multithread Maya. We rely on the Intel C++ compiler for our threading work because of its support for OpenMP and performance-critical sections of code."

Also, the vice president of Dynamic Media for Adobe, Bill Hensler, has said that "The Intel C++ Compiler has been a critical tool in the delivery of the industry's most complete cross-platform suite of professional video tools - Adobe Production Premium. Intel has done a great job delivering a set of software tools that allows Adobe engineers to create outstanding products that revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information."

The conclusion of all this software related mumbo-jumbo that most of us prefer to ignore? Very soon the Intel-based Leopard Macs are going to feature higher performance applications, with better multi-core management capabilities. And that translates into a faster and more responsive operating system for the Intel Mac users and an overall increase in performance.

Can Too Much Windows Vista Cache Be a Bad Thing?

Too much Windows Vista cache, a bad ting? Well, apparently yes, through Excessive Cached Write I/O and Excessive Cached Read I/O. As you probably know by now, cache is connected with boosting the performance of data accessing processes that target sluggish storage media. In an ideal scenario, the data or the code pages would be completely located within the system memory. The speed at which data is accessed, in the physical RAM, exceeds by far that of similar processes that involve a hard disk, by approximately 1 million times. But, because
of the usually limited amount of RAM, the operating system will have to deal with system cache.

"Too much cache is a bad thing; the memory manager works on a demand based algorithm. Physical pages are given to where the current demand is. If the demand isn't satisfied, the memory manager will start pulling pages from other areas, scrub them and send them to help meet the growing demand. Just like any process, the system file cache can consume physical memory if there is sufficient demand. Having a lot of cache is generally not a bad thing, but if it is at the expense of other processes it can be detrimental to system performance. There are two different ways this can occur - read and write I/O," revealed a member of the NTDebugging team.

The first example revolves around excessive cached write I/O. In this scenario, the operating system has to deal with a large volume of applications and services throwing write I/O files at the system file cache. However, the platform is prepared for such cases. Write I/O will be buffered and the working set of the system cache will expand. Ultimately, system threads will be dumped to the hard disk, and this is where the problem will occur, because of the differences in speed management between the disk's speed and that of the I/O write. The exception typically occurs when the cache manager, because of a faulty application or service, will be unable to handle throttling I/O. But at the same time, excessive cached read I/O will also present problems.

"While the SystemCacheDirtyPageThreshold registry value can tune the number of write/dirty pages in physical memory, it does not affect the number of read pages in the system cache. If an application or driver opens many files and actively reads from them continuously through the cache manager, then the memory manger will move more physical pages to the cache manager. If this demand continues to grow, the cache manager can grow to consume physical memory and other process (with less memory demand) will get paged out to disk. The system cache's working set limit can and typically does exceed how much memory is installed in the system," explained the member of the Microsoft NTDebugging team.

AMD, Kicked Out of the Top

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have entered the chip manufacturers elite immediately after the fusion with graphical chip maker ATI. There are signs that AMD won't be able to keep up with the ranking because of low revenue.

AMD is ranked as number eight in the largest chip manufacturers top, with revenues that jumped up from $3.9 billion in 2005
to $7.5 billion in 2006 – an increase of more than 90 percent during a single year. Market trends, however, are wearing gray colors for the company, as their sales are estimated to take a full-blown hit and drop from 22.8% to $5.8 billion, which would surely cast AMD away on a shameful #11. The Intel competition is estimated to recover from the market share loss that has occurred back in 2006 and will gain about 7.7% that would reflect in sales going from $31.5 billion to 34.0 billion – a huge leap for the chip powerhog.

"Throughout most of the year, Intel successfully defended much of the market share that it won from AMD in the first quarter in the PC microprocessor segment due to the success of its lines of dual- and quad-core chips," said Dale Ford, vice president, market intelligence, for iSuppli. "This represents a major reversal of fortune compared to 2006, when AMD had the advantage with its popular dual-core microprocessors, allowing it to gain share from Intel."

Apart from AMD, Texas Instruments (TI) is the only top 10 manufacturer to face sales loss, which is very likely to show the company off the top, too. Texas Instruments is fueled in proportion of more that 45 percent by its wireless communications chips business. The chipmaker is likely to suffer this year a 3.4% decline in global semiconductor revenue, as Nokia moved to other chip manufacturers, such as Infineon.

"Nokia, the world’s largest seller of mobile phones, historically has used Texas Instruments as its near-exclusive supplier of wireless baseband suppliers. However, the company has engaged in a strategic initiative to add other baseband suppliers to reduce its dependency on Texas Instruments. This has benefited other companies such as Infineon, but has cut into Texas Instruments’ sales", concluded Ford.

MSN Video Jumps as High as It Can But Still Doesn't Even Come Close to YouTube

In the larger and multi-faceted face-off between Google and Microsoft, the Redmond and Mountain View giants compete on various fronts. And with MSN Video and YouTube, Microsoft and Google are in the race for the largest share of the online video market. So far, Google has positioned itself as an indisputable leader, after having dropped some $1.6 billion on YouTube at the end of 2006. While Microsoft has an equal opportunity to acquire YouTube, the Redmond company said pass and, instead, focused its efforts on pushing MSN Video
and the prodigal son project, Soapbox on MSN Video.

At the end of September 2007, the prodigal son returned home and was completely swallowed and integrated into MSN Video. In terms of audience, the stand-alone website Soapbox was far from being a success; but, after it has migrated under MSN Video's umbrella, things seem to have turned around for Microsoft. According to the latest data published by Compete, the traffic of MSN Video climbed significantly in October.

Top 10 video competitors

"Extraordinary gains were realized by the Microsoft family of video sites, which includes MSN Video and Live Search Video, catapulting the Redmond rival into 2nd place, three spots ahead of its rank in September. MSN/Live Video grew 25.3% to 35M visits on the strength of 21M visitors. Meanwhile, major losses struck Yahoo! Video, MySpaceTV and Heavy.com. MySpace’s decline is particularly troublesome given that it’s the 3rd straight month of double-digit losses for the social networking giant. Since July 2007, MySpace has seen its online video market share halved to 7.6%," revealed Compete's Alex Patriquin.

An excess of 21 million unique visitors went to MSN Video and Live Search Video in October, generating over 35 million visits for 8.9% of the market. With this percentage Microsoft is now runner up on the online video market, behind Google, whose YouTube owns a share of 53.8%. "YouTube continued to outperform the market, growing 1% in October to 213M visits on nearly 52M unique visitors," Patriquin added.

Asus Xonar U1: High Definition Audio Trapped in an UFO

The first impression when meeting Asus' new USB sound card is that you have just seen a UFO. Its unusual design, made of two overlapping cone halves, hides the UA100 audio processor with a Xear 3D audio engine
that supports DirectSound 3D, EAX 2.0, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker, Dolby Pro-Logic IIx, and Dolby Digital Live technologies. The upper cone has been inteligently transformed into a rotational volume knob.

The sound card is primarily to be used with laptops, but desktop systems are supported as well, as long as they are able to provide a USB 2.0 port. The total output power varies around a signal-to-noise ratio of 100 dB. The sound unit comes in six colors, ranging from blue to gunmetal. The metal-like case not only that gives it an interesting UFO-like look, but also shields the inner components from the electromagnetic interference generated by the computer's activity.

The two audio ports located at the base of the Xonar U1 are designed for the microphone and speakers / headphones connectivity. The stereo-array microphone shipped with the sound card is designed especially for voice-over-ip services, as it has the ability to suppress the ambient noise up to 15 dB.

The audio output emulates the surround sound even with a pair of common speakers or with the common stereo headphones. The only problem for the audio passionate is that the soundcard does not provide the necessary connectivity for using 5.1 analog audio equipment, as this requires a minimum of three inputs, while the soundcard only provides two of them.

The audio system is shipped with its special mixer utility – the Audio Center. It controls the way the digital signal is processed. The user can easily modify the way the sound is delivered, but for the common tasks, there are four DSP modes they can choose from: Music, Hi-Fi, Game and Movie.

Getting Ready for Foxhollow: GPU-in-CPU

There's about one year waiting time until the next-generation Nehalem processor are due to appear, but Intel is going to deliver the creme de la creme no sooner than the first half of 2009. Intel readies a new desktop and mobile CPU series to integrate graphics cores.

The gaming sector will enjoy the first Nehalem processors at the end of next year. There are a few specifications that leaked out, but much more question marks. One thing is for sure,
that the Bloomfields (the codename for Nehalem) is going to be wrapped around the 45-nanometer technology, just like the recent Core 2 Extreme 'Penryn' processors.

We do not know what to expect from Bloomfields in terms of speeds, but the CPU is supposed to use a new, 1366-pin interconnect, that is the foundry for the QuickPath bus to link all the four cores. As if it was not enough, each core will feature an older Intel technology, HyperThreading (HT), available since the Prescott era. This way, the four cores would rather act like eight.

The first half of 2009 will bring another nifty creation from Intel: Lynnfield, that is alleged to adopt PCI Express as the chip-to-chip bus while the interconnect is going to be cut down to 1160 LGA pins. It will also be a quad-core featuring HyperThreading and 8MB of L2 cache, but will support DDR3 in dual-channel mode only. The CPU will incorporate a PCI Express controller that would allow it to link directly to a x16 graphics card.

Intel is going to release a mobile chip too, that would bear the 'Auburndale' codename and will inherit the Cleaksfield/Clarksfield architecture. However, Auburndale is going to be a dual-core product, that will feature an integrated GPU, as well as a directly connected video memory buffer.

Hacker Attacks Apple Fan Blogs

Apple is one of the companies which were often avoided by hacks and viruses because most of the infections were focused on Microsoft's Windows and not on Mac OS X
or Apple technologies. But the Cupertino company is now affected by a series of hacks targeting the Apple fan blogs that are accused of "fanboyism" as the attacker said in the messages posted on the affected websites. "This website has been flagged for excessive Apple fanboism, and has been take down for 24 hours. This is a message to the rest of the Mac community, so listen up. Ever heard of hubris? Tone it down, and you will not be attacked. Everyone else is open game," the message signed by malcor reads.

The hacker even created a blog to mention and describe the attacks. However, it seems like Malcor's blog is down at the time of writing this article. However, the folks at The Register managed to access it before it was shut down and published some snippets posted by Malcor.

"And make no mistake, I don't mean to imply that I'm the worlds [sic] greatest hacker and can work my magic on any site," Malcor wrote on the blog according to the source mentioned above. Moreover, it seems like the hacker has some enthusiastic plans to attack famous websites with millions of visitors. "The #1 site I'd love to take down for all its Apple fanboism is digg.com but I doubt I'll be able to find any exploit holes on a site so big."

The attacks are not so dangerous because the only thing the hacker did was to post a picture and a message on the affected websites. However, this is another proof that the blogs need improved security as many of them can be hacked in no time.

Sony Announces Two High-End, Extremely Expensive Large-Venue Digital Projectors

Although most people associate projectors with either home entertainment systems or business presentations nowadays, the truth of the matter is that they have a far wider range of purposes, including here large-venue projections. And that's exactly the particular market segment Sony's latest announcement refers to, as the company has just informed us of the release of two high-end large venue projectors, which deliver some pretty interesting features, although at very hefty price tags.

The new VPL-FW300L (7,000 lumens) and the VPL-FH300L (6,000 lumens) projector models are designed to deliver high-quality images while in the same room as the audience, which makes them a good solution for smaller auditoriums, large classrooms and meeting rooms, museum exhibits, event centers,
ballrooms and movie theaters.

The VPL-FW300L projector has a WXGA+ resolution of 1366 x 800, while the VPL-FH300L unit delivers resolution of 2048 x 1080. Both models are housed in the same chassis and share the same type of lenses, lamps and filters as well as the same connections and network functions. The projectors also feature Sony’s BrightEra imaging technology, which is based on an inorganic substrate and alignment layer to produce a stronger bonding of molecules. This makes the panel more resistant to damage from UV energy while allowing for an increased aperture ratio.

The Sony VPL-FH300L projector - mounted on the ceiling

The projectors’ innovative round design also includes large-diameter fans and high-flow cooling air ductwork that lets the projector run cool while fan noise is decreased. Moreover, users have a choice of five different standard lenses for excellent placement flexibility, and both models have a locking bayonet mount mechanism for easy lens changes.

Both models use dual 275W lamps, while their opposing design configuration allows for projector tilting for mirror or other uses. The lamps have an expected life of 1500 (high) or 2500 (standard) hours. This use of low wattage lamps saves energy and running costs, which in turn helps the projector run cooler and quieter when compared with other offerings. Moreover, the projectors’ control panels are located on the sides for easy installation and maintenance. Cable management is simpler, with routing channels carrying cabling to the mounting point. Both projectors are also compatible with cable-hiding mounting systems.

"There’s no ‘one size fits all’ option for large-venue projection needs," said John Kaloukian, director of Sony Electronics’ professional display group. "For example, museums are featuring more full HD content in their exhibits and need HD capable projectors that show this footage quietly and effectively. Conversely, more movie theaters are incorporating pre-show content, including local advertisements and regional promotions, and they’re turning to LCD projectors that offer the necessary brightness, color accuracy and widescreen capabilities to fill a multiplex screen."

The Sony VPL-FH300L projector

The new VPL-FW300L and VPL-FH300L large-venue projectors from Sony will retail for around $27,000 and $40,000, respectively, which are some pretty consistent price tags, but we must not forget the fact that these projectors are targeting mostly customers for whom these sums are not that extraordinary.

Blu-ray and HD DVD Beat the Crap Out of Each Other...Again

As we're reporting live from the battlefield of the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war, news are rather...confusing, to say the least. Thus, if we are to believe the statements issued by the two sides, their favored next-gen DVD format is the winner. However, the truth of the matter is that each of the two sides has recorded some victories over the other,
but only in specific sales areas, the overall picture of this whole "conflict" still being that of a stalemate.

But let's see what each of the two sides is boasting about. First of all, after claiming dominance over the Japanese recorders' market, the Blu-ray side has just announced that they've sold over 1 million discs in Europe, which means that over 73 percent of all HD movies ever sold were Blu-rays. Pretty impressive, no? However, we must not forget that all of these sales are mostly due to the PlayStation 3 gaming console (by the way, over 20 million Blu-ray discs containing games were also sold).

This announcement comes after a study carried out by Home Media Research revealed that Blu-ray Disc DVD titles had outsold rival HD-DVD by almost two-to-one in the first nine months of the year in the United States, which means that things look pretty gloomy for HD DVD. Or don't they?

Well, it seems that even if they don't sell too many discs, HD DVD backers sell a whole lot of players. Thus, the HD DVD camp claims that it has sold no less than 750,000 dedicated players in the US, with European sales picking up as well, mostly due to the aggressive low pricing policy.

It's still not quite clear who's dominating this market (meaning, there's no clear victor in this war), and it will be quite some time before one side is really able to claim, based on honest, openly-accepted figures that it's won the next-generation DVD race. Up until then we'll just have to settle for the usual media crap, more or less true figures, accusations and all sorts of more or less shadowy marketing tactics.

Yahoo! Trying to Hit Google Where It Hurts

For those of you that have not got off the Yahoo! horse and continue betting on it, here’s a sign that things will start to pick themselves up: Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Yahoo!’s vice president of research for Europe and Latin America said in an interview today that structured search will be available shortly in order to make
the Internet easier to navigate.

As an example, he presented the case of the "mobile phone" query that, apart from the usual search results containing the actual words, will also pull down menus with choices including mobile phone brands, technologies and specifications plus other features. The best area for this new search function is obviously e-commerce, and this is where Google should start moving its ears to start catching words.

A more specific search that would benefit e-tailers, as well as the regular Joe that doesn’t want to buy something, will, in my opinion, always be favored and chosen ahead of one that does either alone at the same quality.
John Riberio says that "Once the user has made a selection on the menus, Yahoo Search will give the user a list of mobile phones meeting the specifications, their prices, and the Web sites where they can be purchased." A much more interesting option than just clicking from link to link in order to find something that suits you best.

The second announcement that Baeza-Yates made is that Yahoo! is working on a new distributed search architecture that would make local search a lot faster by setting up a network of datacenters in many countries, so that the queries submitted locally are handled faster locally at the datacenter in the country. "The problem, which we are trying to solve, is to make the search for global queries also fast, as the latency of the network is the main problem," he added.

iPhone Buyout Offer in Germany

It was widely expected that the introduction of an official unlocked iPhone, due to European laws, would have a big impact on the dynamics of the market, but despite the unlocking coming earlier than expected, the big boom has only just arrived.

German mobile
virtual network operator Debitel has announced that it will be offering a 600 Euro rebate to people who buy an unlocked iPhone from T-Mobile Germany but sign a contract with them instead. Considering that T-Mobile sells the locked iPhone for 399 Euro, this rebate effectively eliminates the cost of getting an unlocked iPhone, and gives users the freedom to use it on the carrier that better suits their needs.

Considering that Debitel sells airtime it buys from T-Mobile and rivals Vodafone, O2, and E-Plus in Germany, users will be able to use whatever carrier they prefer. "We are happy to offer iPhone buyers the freedom of choice that customers are entitled to expect from a service provider," said Oliver Steil, Debitel's marketing chief.

In one swift move, Debitel has essentially eliminated any advantage T-Mobile might have had because of their partnership with Apple, and the company has no qualms with paying the difference as long as it gets them new subscribers. The company will start offering contracts starting at 40 Euro a month for 200 minutes, cheaper than T-Mobile’s base offering of 49 Euro for only half the minutes. Customers that opt for using the Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 networks will – of course – not benefit from Visual Voicemail, but all other features of the iPhone will function properly.

What is amazing about Debitel is not only the offer they are coming out with, but the frankness with which they are doing it. They are clearly offering to buy you out of the T-Mobile contract, and not sugar coating it in any way. This could be a seriously nasty development for Apple, as Debitel won’t be sharing any revenue with them, and they stand to lose a lot of potential customers who prefer the more competitive service plans or network coverage. It will also be interesting to see if this move is mirrored in France, where it could be even more popular if the unlocked version of the iPhone will indeed sell for "significantly less" than in Germany.

Man, This Is Smart! A Windows Infection That Gives Remote Control to The Hacker!

We've seen similar infections in the past, but since this is pretty new, it might manage to bypass the antivirus protection and install on your computer. Security company Trend Micro discovered BKDR_DARKMOON.AH, a new backdoor affecting the Windows operating systems which attempts to open a port in order to allow the hacker to connect to
your computer. Basically, it can open any port it wants and, since there are so many remote control technologies available out there, it can easily allow its creator to control your system.

The backdoor affects most Windows versions including Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003. But what's more important is that it has a high damage potential bundled with a medium distribution potential. Sure, it has a low overall risk rating, but it's still dangerous for our computers since it provides remote access to the attackers.

"This backdoor may be dropped by other malware. It opens a random port to allow a remote user to connect to the affected system. Once a successful connection is established, the remote user executes commands on the affected system", Trend Micro wrote in the advisory.

"Upon execution, this backdoor injects itself into the Internet Explorer process and sets up an obfuscated connection to [website], which currently resolves to [IP], to notify a remote user of the system it has compromised."

Since the backdoor is pretty new, there are no infections reported. However, you're still advised to keep your antivirus up-to-date with the latest virus definitions and avoid visiting malicious websites coming from unknown sources.

Most of the antivirus developers quickly update their solutions to provide support and disinfection for the reported threats so that you are protected as soon as possible. In case you don't have an antivirus solution installed on your computer, you can get one straight from Softpedia by visiting our Antivirus category.

Toshiba and Nec, Hand in Hand for 32 nm Chips

The leading chip manufacturers on the Japanese market, Toshiba and Nec have recently announced their joint project to develop competitive 32-nanometer chip in order to maintain a tight competition on the chips market.

This would not be the first partnership between the two semiconductor industry giants,
as they have been working closely to achieve 45nm process technology development since February 2006. The 32 nanometer project will work as an extension of the previous partnership at the same location, namely Toshiba's Advanced Microelectronics Center in Yokohama. The companies have teamed up to share the amount of work as well as production costs.

The chip industry is struggling to shrink the actual circuit sizes in order to keep low costs per chip and to provide electronic equipment with an increased functioning time when using batteries. These objectives, however, have impact over materials and the whole production process, which translates into huge investments for starting mass production. Global semiconductor companies fight these costs by creating joint ventures, just like Toshiba and Nec.

The competition is harsh, as Samsung Electronics, IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Infineon Technologies, STMicroelectronics and Freescale Semiconductor have announced that they are working on achieving the 32-nanometer chips until 2010.

The joint venture will start producing 45-nanometer or 40-nanometer chips until 2009, and will try to add Fujitsu as partner. However, spokesman Etsuro Yamada declined to comment on whether or not Fujitsu would join the group, but managed to say that Fujitsu was taking into consideration all the aspects of adhering to the joint venture.

Producing 32-nanometer chips will require a complete change in the companies' equipments, such as immersion steppers that use purified water, silicon wafers to draw the circuitry over microchips as well as other logistic changes. The companies would have to invest more than 100-200 billion yen before they are able to produce the first 32-nanometer chip.

Guide to Connecting the Xbox 360 to Windows Vista Media Center PC

First of all, those attempting to connect their Xbox 360 to the PC will need to install the Rollup 2 update in MCE2005 and download the software from the URL the Xbox 360 brings up when trying to connect. If you're using Windows
Firewall, you don't need to turn it off, as it will adjust itself automatically. Actually, just don't turn it off, period! If you're using a 3rd party firewall, click here for a solution.

Steps

1. Be sure your 360 isn't paired up with any other PC. To do this, go to your 360 dashboard and browse to the System blade, then Computers. Disconnect from any computers listed there.

2. Boot your Windows Vista PC up and leave it sitting on the desktop.

3. On your 360, browse to the "Media Blade" and select "Windows Media Center". Alternatively, press the green MCE button if you have a remote.

4. You will be presented with an 8 digit number. Write it down or memorize it, and go back to your PC.

5. If you're in "Media Center", you should see the Window prompting you for the numbers. If you're not, then a pop-up balloon will appear from your system tray, near the clock.

6. Enter the numbers required, then set your options for folder sharing. Select the folders you have media in.

7. Let it do its thing. Once finished, it should automatically launch MCE on the 360.

TRANSCODE 360
Transcode 360 allows you to stream unsupported formats to your Xbox 360 console. Microsoft allows very few formats through, but there's a way you can stream them by using this software.

You can download the Transcode360 utility software right HERE

Requirements:
Windows Media Center, either Vista or XP MCE 2005
A computer that's reasonably quick. I can transcode with a laptop that has a Pentium M 1.4GHZ and a GB of Ram.
Vista Codec Pack (including FFDshow)

Steps

1. Install the codec pack with default settings.
2. Install Transcode360, using default settings. REBOOT YOUR PC
3. If you get an error after the reboot, you'll need to turn UAC off. This is a pain with Vista, as you can't specify the application to bypass UAC (that I know of).
4. If you run Avast Anti-Virus, check here
5. Once you have no issues after reboots, you're ready to go.

Run "Media Center" on your 360 and browse to the movie you want to watch (can include ISO images). Press "B" on your controller, or "Info" on the remote, which brings up a menu. Select "More", then "Transcode". Wait a few seconds (depending on the speed of your PC), and the movie should start!

The information above was available courtesy of jimmy_Bish up on the Xbox 360 forums.

Softpedia doesn't encourage the use of incompatible hardware with the Xbox 360 console from Microsoft, or any software or parts that the company hasn't confirmed as suitable for use with the respective console.

Apple Already Giving Out iPhone SDKs?

Everyone knows that the iPhone SDK is still months away from being released, and the only people doing anything with it at the moment are the Apple employees that are working on it, right? It seems that might not be the case as Electronista reports that its sources have caught wind of Apple releasing early versions of the SDK to prominent developers.

Apple needs to balance out both security and a robust development platform, which will take a couple of months… we’ve all heard the company’s
official statements on the topic. But is it any surprise that Apple would start giving early version of the SDK out to major developers that it is on good terms with? Hardly.

While regular developers will have to wait until next year, a handful of big companies can already start using rough version of the tools in order to code more complex applications than the current web-only offerings.

Although the Electronista report does not give out specific details, it does mention that the SDK does indeed produce native applications, and that it also mediates between the programmer and the iPhone operating system, in a manner similar to Google's OpenSocial. Thus, writing applications for the iPhone will be quite different from writing applications for OS X, with very clear limitations, but still be a lot more flexible than the current approach to the problem.

Although both the companies that have received the SDK, as well as possible projects they might be working have not been disclosed, one thing is very clear. These big time developers will likely already have their applications ready for launch the second Apple is ready to release the SDK, well ahead of the normal developers all over the world. While undoubtedly this is a blow to the very people that have made the Mac platform what it is today with their plethora of applications, the move does make sense from a business point of view. Apple can cement their relationships with various other big companies through this early start, as well as have a bunch of applications ready on launch day to show the world what wonders can be accomplished with the new SDK. Hopefully, someone at Apple was smart enough to select one or two established, long-time Mac developers for the early SDK, as a gesture of good will.

Windows XP SP3 Twice as Fast as Windows Vista – Leaves Vista SP1 in the Dust

Forget about Windows Vista. And forget about Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft's latest Windows client has been quite sluggish to begin with. This in both consumer adoption and in terms of the performance it delivers. As the operating system was crawling along, while performing the most common of tasks, even "speed bumps" seemed an integer part of the road's landscape. Right, that was uncalled for... But still, even on its best day, Vista is slow, and the first service pack for the operating system will change nothing in this aspect. Windows XP SP3 simply flies in comparison to Vista, SP1 or no SP1.

Benchmark testing delivered by the researchers at Devil Mountain Software, a software-development
company based in Florida, revealed that Windows XP SP3 is twice as fast as Windows Vista, with or without SP1 installed. The company threw the two operating systems one against the other on the following configuration: Dell XPS M1710, 2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 1GB of RAM and nVidia GeForce Go 7900GS video. While Vista SP1 delivered minor and disappointing growth in performance, XP SP3 faired quite well.
"Windows XP Service Pack 3 (v.3244) delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS. Testing with OfficeBench showed an ~10% performance boost vs. the same configuration running under Windows XP w/Service Pack 2. XP SP3 is shaping-up to be a "must have" update for the majority of users who are still running Redmond's not-so-latest and greatest desktop OS. Of course, none of this bodes well for Vista, which is now more than 2x slower than the most current builds of its older sibling", revealed a member of Devil Mountain Sofware.

Windows XP SP3 finished the OfficeBench test in approximately 35 seconds, XP SP2 went over 40 seconds with Vista RTM and Vista SP1 both exceeding 80 seconds. The company then added another GB of RAM. Moreover, they also tested Vista in tandem with Office 2007 instead of Office 2003. But while Vista dropped under the 80 seconds milestone it still doesn't even come close to the performance of XP. Commenting the benchmarking Microsoft explained that both Vista SP1 and XP SP3 are still under development and as such, not delivering a complete experience. Vista SP1 is currently planned for the first quarter of next year, while XP has been announced by mid 2008.

"By providing Vista (SP1) with an additional 1GB of RAM (that's a total of 2GB for those of you keeping score) we managed to achieve a "whopping" 4% improvement in OfficeBench throughput. Moving from Office 2007 to Office 2003 definitely improved Vista's showing. Instead of being over 2x slower than XP on the same OfficeBench workload, Vista is now "only" 1.8x slower", the Devil Mountain Software added.

The Satechi Bluetooth FM Transmitter: Cheapo, iPod and Zune Compatible

Bluetooth has become one of the most popular data transfer and voice communication technologies around, one of the reasons of its popularity being related to its ease of integration. Thus, the number of Bluetooth-enabled devices available on the market is absolutely huge, ranging from mice to headphones via, quite obviously, such handhelds as mobile phones and PDAs.
One relatively recent addition to this list is represented by FM transmitters, much like the device you're about to see as follows, namely the Satechi Bluetooth FM Transmitter; it can route both the voice calls and the music stored onto the user's portable devices directly through his/her car audio system.

The device from Satechi is a Class 2 Bluetooth device, compliant with the V 1.1/1.2/2.0 specifications and providing an overall functioning range of around 30 feet (10 meters). Furthermore, it supports the Bluetooth A2DP (Advance Audio Distribution) profile, which can prove to be quite helpful for broadcasting music, and incorporates DSP (Digital Signal Processing) to cancel echo and reduce ambient noise.

Moreover, the FM transmitter is compatible with every Bluetooth-enabled phone on the market and provides quite a high level of versatility, since its audio input also supports additional music players, as for example the iPod, the Zune or other generic models.

As expected, this thing is not exactly very bulky, measuring just around 3 x 1.5 x 1 inches (7.62 cm x 3.81 cm x 2.54 cm), at a weight of just around 1 pound (453 grams). Furthermore, it doesn't require any batteries, since it's powered directly by the car's cigarette lighter adapter.

The Satechi Bluetooth FM Transmitter - box shot
As mentioned right from the beginning of this article, one of the most important selling points of the Bluetooth FM Transmitter from Satechi is its price. Thus, the device retails for around 100 US dollars, which is not a very small price, but it's in any case more affordable than most of the similar devices available on the market, which will most likely make it quite popular among those users who would like to enjoy the features of a Bluetooth handsfree system, without coughing up quite a large amount of money.

Sequence “Experiment Auto-Complete” Started For Many

Google has decided to let the world join in and lend a helping hand with feedback for its various user experience improving programs. Today, it’s about the auto-complete option that one and all can turn on for the search engine’s homepage.

All you need to do for this to happen is to visit
the Experimental Search homepage and click on the "Join this experiment" button right next to the "Keyword suggestions" section. Auto complete will then be switched on and you will see the search box expand to a list of popular queries as you type.

Useful, I know, not unique, rather behind on time, but welcome nonetheless. Some countries have this option by default, such as China; but users in many other countries will have to go through the above process in order to see its "beneficial" effects. For example, Yahoo! has recently gone the same path and launched its very own auto-complete feature, but it looks so much neater than what Google is offering right now. It has a special box divided in half, for the queries formed with the letters typed in and the second for a potential future word that matches a previous query. It also doesn’t stress you right away with the drop-down list, but it waits for you to pause for a couple of moments in typing and only then it does its thing.

I've just joined this experiment and the one thing it has more than Yahoo!’s equivalent of it is the number of matches it finds, displayed in the right. That’s something like Google Trends, if I may compare the two. A good tool to have at your disposal when you have to type in complicated words or names (especially Nordic ones, I find those rather difficult), or when you’re in a hurry. Except for that… eh… what can I say, it might as well not have been there as far as I’m concerned.

How About A Virus That Restarts Your Computer?

WORM_BRONTOK.CE is a new worm discovered by security company Trend Micro which confirmed that the infection affects most Windows versions including 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003. Although the worm has a medium damage potential and a medium distribution potential, there are no reported infections yet. In case you're wondering how you can get infected, you should know that WORM_BRONTOK.CE can be deployed by other infections or straight by the users who visit malicious pages. The installation is done without
their approval so there's no way to find out if you're infected in case you don't have an antivirus. But what's more important is that the threat aims to harm several file formats in order to be sure that it is executed on the victim's computer.

"Upon execution, this worm drops the following files. This worm creates registry entries to enable its automatic execution at every system startup. It also modifies registry entries in order to execute itself every time a .EXE, .COM, .PIF, or .BAT file is run," Trend Micro noted in the security advisory.

In addition to these affected file extensions, the worm attempts to reboot the computer every time a certain string is detected in the Internet Explorer title bar. This way, the affected consumers can get their systems restarted every time they visit certain websites. "This worm restarts the affected system when it finds an open window containing certain strings in the title bar of Internet Explorer (IE)," Trend Micro explained.

Moreover, the infection uses the Windows folder icon to hide its files from the users. "It also uses the Windows folder icon to trick affected users into thinking that it is a normal or legitimate folder. Once clicked, it opens the My Documents folder to hide its execution routines."

Just like several other Windows infections, WORM_BRONTOK.CE attempts to spread itself by installing on every removable drive connected to an infected computer. The propagation is done through an Autorun.inf file dropped on every removable device which is used to infect clean computers and execute the worm.

ATI FireGL V7600 512 MB Workstation Graphics Card

ATI’s FireGL brand of workstation-class graphics cards have played second fiddle to NVIDIA's offerings for some time now. NVIDIA’s rival Quadro lineup has been an incredibly strong competitor, and combined with the fact that the last several FireGL card releases have suffered from late arrival dates and lackluster performance by the time they hit the market, NVIDIA has been able to get a solid foothold in this market. However, with the power of the R600 graphics processor under the hood, ATI has introduced a new lineup of workstation cards which are giving NVIDIA a run for their money in terms of price/performance metrics. The R600 may not have been a tremendous hit for the gaming market, but in a workstation environment, the power of this GPU can be harnessed in a much different way.

Today in hand, we have the new FireGL V7600 512MB workstation graphics card. This card is based on the same basic board design as the Radeon HD 2900 lineup for gamers, but is tweaked on both the hardware and software level for enhanced workstation performance. The card is the least costly of ATI’s FireGL lineup based on the R600 GPU, and currently retails for just south of $1,000. At this time, Nvidia has nothing directly competing against this product at that price point, which gives ATI an opportunity to strike for workstation users who want a high-end workstation card at a price tag under four digits. We’ve heard rumors of upcoming products from Nvidia which will directly target this card, but for now, the FireGL V7600 owns its specific price point.

The closest competitor, from a price perspective, is Nvidia’s QuadroFX 4500 card, which can currently be had online for $800 - $1,000. While the QuadroFX 4500 is a solid competitor, it’s been on the market for several years, and doesn’t support some newer technologies like Shader Model 4.0 (DirectX 10). However, in the workstation market, where OpenGL is still king, this feature matters very little. The driving factors for workstation buyers are still raw OpenGL graphics performance, clean drivers, industry certifications, memory capacity, and overall value. In its market, the FireGL V7600 looks very strong. Let’s take a closer look at the actual product.


"Introducing the ATI FireGL V7600 workstation graphics accelerators from AMD with Unified Shader architecture - this fully featured graphics accelerator is ideal for maximizing productivity when working with complex 3D models and intense textures for Computer Aided Design (CAD), Digital Content Creation (DCC) and simulation. The ATI FireGL V7600 delivers industry leading features and performance at an affordable price."

* ATI R600 Graphics Processing Unit

* 512 MB of GDDR-3 Memory

* 256-bit Ringbus Memory Controller

* 35 GB/s Memory Bandwidth

* 507 MHz GPU Clock Speed

* 320 Steam Processors

* Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.0 Support



* PCI Express x16 Connector

* 8-pin PCI Express Power Connector

* Dual Slot Copper Heatpipe Cooling System

* Thermally Controlled Integrated Blower Fan

* Two Dual-Link DVI Output Ports

* 3-pin Stereoscopic Output Connector

* Crossfire 2.0 Multi-GPU Connectors

The FireGL V7600 uses the same massive R600 core used in the Radeon HD 2900 lineup, which has an (estimated) 420mm2 die size, is comprised of over 700 million transistors, and is based on an 80nm manufacturing process. The V7600 runs at a far lower clock speed, however, as ATI’s utilities report the card operates at a 507 MHz core frequency, compared to the 750 MHz+ clock speeds at which their gaming-targeted R600 products run. Unfortunately, all of the available software-level utilities to try to pinpoint exact clock speeds would not work with the V7600 card, which also kept us from overclocking the card. Keep in mind this is a workstation card though, so the percentage of those actually overclocking a card like this is slim to none.

The board is equipped with 512 MB of GDDR-3 memory which is connected to a 256-bit memory controller. ATI’s documentation is conflicted on overall memory bandwidth of this card, as their reviewers guide claims it has 35 GB/s whereas their website says over 50 GB/s. ATI’s software tools claim that the clock speed of the DDR memory is a mere 513 MHz (x2 DDR), which matches up closer to 35 GB/s rather than 51 GB/s.
The V7600 uses the same Catalyst Control Center that most ATI users are familiar with. We did not see any specific FireGL functionality in the driver set. ATI does not publically have FireGL V7600 drivers on their website, so we had to use the bundled drivers that came with our sample board.

One aspect which we feel is worth noting is that the FireGL V7600 does not have 64-bit drivers readily available at this time. We were forced to run our tests under a 32-bit operating system, although when we tried to run this card in a 64-bit operating system, we realized that there simply aren’t any Vista or XP x64 drivers available from ATI. We think it’s quite likely that someone buying a $1,000 graphics card will also be running 4GB of memory and will likely use a 64-bit operating system, so potential buyers might want to keep this in mind. We’re certain that they will be adding 64-bit support soon, but as of now, x64 users are out of luck.

3M Announces 46-inch (1.16-meter) Touch Screens!

Touch screens represent the future of control systems, but, unfortunately, most devices of this type available on the market have relatively small sizes. Nevertheless, it would seem that things are about to change, since 3M has just announced that it will be releasing very early next year a series of touch screens with sizes of up to 46 inches
(1.16 meters).

Thus, the new MicroTouch DST touch screens will be available in 32-inch, 40-inch, 42-inch and 46-inch screen sizes to integrators across Europe. Based on 3M’s patented Dispersive Signal Technology (DST), MicroTouch DST touch screens offer integrators a very good solution for large-format interactive displays in most public environments and applications, including digital signage, retail point-of-sale, point-of-information, conference rooms and education presentation systems.

As the company informs us, Dispersive Signal Technology recognizes touch by interpreting bending waves within the glass substrate created by the contact of a finger or stylus on the glass. Since bending waves are unaffected by on-screen contaminants and moderate surface damage, DST touch screens are inherently robust making them a compelling solution for customers in many of today’s high productivity, vertical applications.

"DST touch screens offer unique qualities not available from existing large format touch solutions," commented Francesco Fasoglio, European Business Manager, 3M Touch Systems. "In addition to offering fast, accurate and reliable touch response, and exceptional light transmission, the touch screens are easy to integrate. They have no front surface components to impede bezel integration, they are easily sealable, and feature chemically-strengthened glass to ensure operation is unaffected by surface contaminants. Furthermore, their "dynamic touch" feature ignores static objects on the screen to allow for multi-user touch capabilities."

According to 3M, the new touch screens will be available starting January 1st 2008, although no pricing details have been revealed for the time being.

BitDefender Antivirus 2008 Hits US

BitDefender Internet Security 2008 and BitDefender Antivirus 2008, two popular security technologies, are now available to the residents of the United States through OfficeMax and its 860 retail stores across the country. BitDefender is one of the top solutions when it comes
to computer security as it offers numerous products supposed to keep a safe and secure system.

For example, the Internet Security suite includes everything a user needs starting with comprehensive protection against viruses, spyware or spam and ending with offline backup features and system maintenance tools. "Additional features include improved Internet application control, adaptive filtering, heuristic web filtering, as well as a set-up wizard that simplifies installation", it is mentioned in a press release signed by the security vendor.

"As part of our continuing efforts to provide consumers with the best available antivirus software and data security solutions, we are pleased that our software will now be available through OfficeMax in the U.S.," stated Kirk Matsuo, BitDefender’s director of retail sales. "This allows us to widen our reach throughout the United States while providing a simple-to-use solution to those searching for the most advanced protection against the threats encountered in today’s online activities, as well as protection against threats that may appear at any moment."

The official page of OfficeMax sells the BitDefender Antivirus for $39.99, while the BitDefender Internet Security suite can be bought for no less than $59.99.

In case you didn't know, BitDefender is one of the technologies compatible with Windows Vista, the latest operating system rolled out by the Redmond software giant Microsoft. Although it was supposed to be the most secure OS designed by Microsoft, most users prefer to install additional security utilities to enhance the protection of the application. BitDefender is one of these so if you want to buy it, now you know where to find it.

Samsung Spinpoint F1 – One Terabyte, Three Platters

The storage industry has undoubtedly undergone a fascinating evolution this year. We have seen the 250 GB notebook hard drive hit the shelves, as well as we have witnessed the first 3.5'' one terabyte hard disk drive. Most of all, the new technology is already mass-produced, with affordable prices for the consumer market. Until now, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital have managed to carry capacity above 1 TB. It is now time for Samsung
to join the four aces club.

The first to surpass the gigabyte barrier was Hitachi GST with their Deskstar 7K1000. The disk used five platters storing 200 GB each, but as the number of mobile parts increased, so did power consumption and noise levels.

The next to penetrate the terbayte market was Western Digital's Caviar Green Power (GP), that compressed one terabyte on four platters only. Although the disc spins at 5400 RPM, Western Digital compensates the rotational handicap with a more compact design.

Seagate came the third into the terabyte-disc producing elite, but it is worth the waiting, because Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 is the fastest 3.5" SATA drive on the market. The disc also uses four platters for 1TB of storage, but thanks to the full speed 7,200 RPM spindle, the drive is able to deliver a transfer rate of 100 MB/s.

Samsung has announced their entry in the one-terabyte disk manufacturers elite. Unlike their predecessors, Samsung has approached the terabyte threshold using only three platters, which makes it not only faster than the competition's, but also more economical in terms of absorbed power. Samsung can also speculate new opportunities by delivering single-platter hard drives up to 320 GB with a minimal investment in materials and production costs. The other manufacturers are still nailed down by the maximum 250 GB storage capacity per platter.

Unfortunately, Samsung's architecture does not support upgrades. It would have been logical for Samsung to add a fourth platter get a smashing 1.35 TB hard drive, but unfortunately, this is not possible. While other manufacturers are using 50-millimeter thick platters, Samsung has adopted the 68-millimeter format that increases resistance against vibrations. A fourth platter merely would not fit the hard disk case.

Panasonic Promises: One in Ten PCs Will Feature HD Recorders

The coming year won't bring us the happiness of a new beginning, but will take us to further steps in home entertainment, or at least Panasonic executives think so. According to them, about 10% of personal computers (PCs) will incorporate either Blu-ray or HD DVD drive next year, as the technology becomes
more and more accessible following the recent price drops of blue laser-based optical disk drives.

"The adoption of blue-laser optical disc drives (ODDs), Blu-ray Disc (BD) and/or HD DVD, built into desktop and notebook PCs will increase from less than 1% of all PCs in 2007 to 10% in 2008," said Panasonic general manager Masayuki Kozuka.

The Panasonic executive has also overestimated the selling rates for Blu-ray or HD DVD, and figured for a 5 percent of the optical disk drives this year, while the reports say that he was 4 percent more optimistic. The difference between expectation and reality could also be the result of a slower adoption of the new optical technology.

Blu-ray and HD DVD players have become extremely popular in Japan, the market promoter of the high-definition technology. Kozuka has estimated that BD or HD DVD players percentage has risen from 14.8% in 2006 to 20% in 2007 and will continue growing to more than 50 percent in the following year, which is quite a breakthrough if we look back at the fainting figures for other countries (less than 5 percent of the overall optical disc drives).

The only problem in HD media expansion is still the salty price, as Blu-ray standalone prices make the technology unavailable to the average home entertainment consumer. The good news is that Pioneer and the Philips-LG joint venture are working on more affordable desktop PC versions. Toshiba has entered the HD market and is now offering affordable drives for both notebooks and desktops.

Cable Modems Pending 100Mbps Certification for 2008

CableLabs have already begun testing the new set of DOCSIS 3.0 (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications) equipment submitted by five cable internet service providers. The DOCSIS 3.0 standard is still awaiting certification, but some cable ISP in Asia have already launched their lines of DOCSIS 3.0 modems
, pending certification.

As for now, the common standard adopted by worldwide ISPs is the long-runner DOCSIS 1.1 which has already proven fail-safe, but as the distribution technology evolves, and more and more ISPs switch to fiber, DOCSIS 1.1 becomes the main bottleneck in networking distribution. Since the advent of digital high-definition content, speed is everything – just what lacks the old DOCSIS 1.1 standard.

DOCSIS 3.0 is supposed to fix the unfortunate aspect, by providing download speeds up to 160Mbps and uploads of up to 120Mbps, marking a four-fold increase over today’s current high-speed standards.
The modem can reach amazing download and upload speeds by using a process called "Channel Bonding" - which means that multiple channels of data transfer are used rather than just one (DOCSIS 1.1).

On top of that, the new standard is Ipv6 compliant, supporting lots of security features as well as enhanced network management. When using the DOCSIS 3.0 standard, there is no physical restriction in using IPTV or other high-definition video streaming services.

During the tests, the DOCSIS 3.0 gear had exemplary results: customers of a South Korea service provider witnessed download speeds of 100Mbps, while a trial in Singapore revealed download speeds up to 145Mbps.

The DOCSIS 3.0 certification is an important step for internet-over-cable service providers, who have constantly been threatened by the expansion of fiber-optics. Cable companies should be able to deploy DOCSIS 3.0 compliant equipment at the beginning of 2008 – especially in territories already under the rule of fiber-optics internet service providers.

Windows XP SP3 to Drop Concomitantly with Windows Vista SP1?

First Half of 2008?

Yes, it's time for every Windows user's favorite obsession: Windows XP Service Pack 3. The third and final service pack for Windows XP has been quite elusive for the past three years. The logical step in the evolution of XP, following the introduction of Service Pack 2, formerly codenamed Springboard, SP3 got pushed back into the background and in the shadow of Windows Vista. Despite Microsoft's initial estimates, it failed to ship in 2006 and in 2007, getting postponed all the way back to 2008. The first half of 2008 that is.

Microsoft remained consistent amidst speculations pointing to the cancellation of the service pack, and only broke the silence of Windows Omerta to reinstate its commitment to deliver SP3 by mid 2008. And now with both the service packs for XP and Vista under construction, the first half of the coming year holds a great deal of promise for Windows users. Vista's rough corners will be softened down to the texture of a baby bottom, SP1 bringing to the table boosted performance, increased reliability and enhanced support. And XP will get a few Vista features along with just about every hotfix, update and patch that Microsoft will be able to squeeze into a standard service pack.

And all by mid 2008. This is because, following the departure of Jim Allchin, the former Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, on January 30 2007, the same day that Vista shipped to consumers, Microsoft forced Windows into the Sinofsky era. Steven – codename Translucency – Sinofsky, is the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group — the user experience of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live services, and
the architect of Windows Omerta. And Sinofsky brings with him a new development strategy focused on the delivery.

Or the First Quarter?

On the official Microsoft webpage for Windows Service Pack Road Map, the Redmond company has posted general details about the delivery date of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional. The two messages read as following: "SP3 for Windows XP Home Edition is currently planned for 1H CY2008. This date is preliminary. SP3 for Windows XP Professional is currently planned for 1H CY2008. This date is preliminary." Therefore, SP3 by mid 2008 is nothing but a preliminary change. And in this context, subjected to change.

Tucked away from the prying eyes of Windows users, Microsoft updated Windows Service Pack Road Map on October 15 2007 with an entry for Windows Vista: "SP1 for Windows Vista is planned for 1Q CY2008. This date is based on beta feedback." So... the first quarter of 2007. Microsoft is not playing around with the patience and frustration of Windows users. For both Vista SP1 and XP SP3 the company will ultimately decide the release data in accordance with the beta testing feedback. The more positive the input, the closer the availability date of the two service packs.

But as abstract that the first quarter/half of 2008 mighty seem, chances are in fact that Microsoft will make available Windows XP SP 3 and Windows Vista SP1 at the same time, and closer to the beginning of next year rather than to summer. This of course has not been confirmed by the Redmond company and it is pure speculation on my part. However, there is an intimate connection between XP SP3 and Vista SP1 that supports such a scenario.

Siamese Service Packs

Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 have been joined at the hip ever since they debuted into beta testing in mid July 2007. The two beta preview builds of the service packs were dropped in the laps of a select pool of testers, but Microsoft did point to the broadening of the test driving process for both releases. Windows XP SP3 build 5.1.2600.3180 (xpsp.070718-2058) – 350MB and the Vista Vista SP1 ISO file pre-beta build 6001.16549, marked the debut of service packs tandem releases, synchronized around new development milestones of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn.

At the end of September, Microsoft delivered on its promises with the evolution of Vista SP1 and dropped the first beta for the service pack. Windows Vista SP1 Beta Build 6.0.6001.16655 (longhorn_rc0.070907-1905) was shortly followed by the availability of Windows XP SP3 Beta Build 3205 in early October. And Microsoft kept this up while moving the two service packs into Release Candidate stage.

The past week, testers were permitted access to a preview version of the Release Candidate for Windows Vista SP1 – build 6001.17042. The RC for XP SP3 accompanied the new milestone release of Vista SP1 with Build 2600.xpsp.071030-1537: Service Pack 3, v.3244 - 337 MB. And all this time Microsoft was also advancing Windows Server 2008 in the background. In this regard, it seems only a logical conclusion that the synchronization of the testing builds of Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1 will also translate to the final versions.

The fact of the matter is that every way you look at it, the first half of 2008 automatically includes the first quarter. And XP SP3 and Vista SP1 moving roughly at the same pace through Beta Previews, Beta and Release Candidate stages, manage to provide an insight into the continuation of development up to the final release.

Marketing Suicide? Or Is It?

Although Windows Vista is currently in the limelight for Microsoft, Windows XP is still far from expiration. One view over the XP vs. Vista face-off in terms of the install base is that SP3 will be a marketing suicide for Vista, SP1 or no SP1. Still, Microsoft, even before Vista hot the shelves, added support to Windows XP throughout 2014. In addition, the company prolonged XP's availability via the retail and original manufacturer channels until mid 2008.

XP is deeply rooted, having had no less than five years to dig itself in, and is now at approximately 80% of the operating system market. Vista is still far; Microsoft, after the first year since the platform was released to manufacturing, applauded shipping 88 million copies to its channel partners, which approximately reflects the 8% market share. And by all means, SP3 will be an incentive for XP users to stick with what they got, while SP1 will increase adoption of Vista.

But, at the same time, Microsoft is targeting corporate users. Deploying a service pack throughout a business ecosystem involves a massive logistical effort impacting all aspects of the IT infrastructure. With Windows 7 planned for 2010, and with the perspective of deploying either Vista with SP1 or SP3 for XP, more and more corporate users are going to opt to migrate/upgrade to the latest Windows client available.

Asetek Provides Low Cost Liquid Cooling Solutions

The low-cost cooling solution from Asetek is aimed at the needs of OEM companies and it is worth trying it since HP has already implemented it in the Blackbird 002 gaming computers line. The liquid cooling solution is not oriented towards the motherboard
only, it also takes care of the video card's GPU as well.

Although it may seem complicated, installing such a system proves to be simple and the do-it-yourself enthusiasts would be more than satisfied. No matter what platform you are using, you can take advantage of having a liquid cooling solution, as it is compatible both with Intel and AMD processors in any possible configurations.

The CPU block is the core component in the system. It contains a miniaturized version of a powerful water pump, but there is no water reservoir. The cooling solution is made of three components linked in a closed circuit. Other components can be added if required (for example in multi-computer environments). The CPU block has, however, to be connected to one of the standard, 12-volt, power sources that your system does not use.

The water from the reservoir is cooled by two powerful fans that can be attached to the CPU fan connector on the motherboard, which would allow for RPM control – a handy feature when it comes to fighting noise. The cooling unit can also be used for GPU cooling. The graphic card radiator supports fans from 80 to 120mm and there is a 120mm fan shipped in the package.

The only problem the user may encounter with this low-cost liquid cooling solution is the fact that it isn't to be found on the retailers' shelves. It is exclusively dedicated to the OEM sector in order to be integrated in gaming and high performance systems.

The Hunt for Asus Eee

Here we are in the final month of the year, and the shopping frenzy has already begun. The times when teddy bears and candies were appreciated gifts are long since dead. The nowadays kid is more tech-savvy and looks for other types of entertainment. This should only make
the IT world rejoice once again.

The Asus Eee PC is the most wanted notebook of all, or so report sales giants such as Amazon and the CNET networks. Contrary to unanimous belief, the must-have of the year has even surpassed the iPod Touch and the iPhone. The Eee model became so popular than all the available units in the retailers' stores have been snatched to the bottom of the stock. The main problem retailers have to face is that the Christmas shopping spree has not even started, and they are already unable to provide enough units.

People queue for days in the vain hope of putting their hand on the popular gadget. The Asus Eee PC has already been sold in more than ten thousands units in only two weeks since it first appeared on the market. But the USA are not the only battlefied for the notebook. In places such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, Asus Eee PC is sold out as soon as it gets displayed on the shelves. Everywhere you go, it's already sold out and you have to subscribe to a waiting list, then wait for the next shipment.

Even schools are frenetically buying Eees for classroom usage. Their simple design and limited hardware – of course, at a decent price - makes them the ideal aid in teaching, as there's nothing to mess up while operating such devices. The Fresno Unified School District in California have purchased more than 1,300 Eee units that are part of the training process. Teacher can display, manipulate and transfer multimedia content to the students' Eee PCs inside the classroom.

Compact and fancy, but at the same time wearing a flavor of advanced technology, they have been quickly adopted by school kids worldwide. You only need a whole bunch of luck to find a piece for your kid's Christmas present.