Hardware

US children stumped by gadgets of yesterday

2012-01-21T05:25:00.000-08:00

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 20 Jan 2012 - Throughout this week, Al Jazeera has presented a series of reports showcasing older technologies that are still going strong.In the final instalment, five US children from today's high-tech generation attempt to identify older electronic devices that stopped being widely used before they were born.

Samsung loses one of many patent cases with Apple.

2012-01-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

Published on 20 Jan 2012 by Euronews : Samsung has suffered a setback in its tablet and smartphone battle with Apple.A German court has ruled against the South Korean company in a patent case, which is another leg in the lengthy legal struggle between the two technology giants.Samsung said the ruling covers one patent out of the three mobile technologies it claims Apple infringed.

Rulings on the other two will be made by the Mannheim court in the next couple of weeks. Samsung said it has yet to decide whether to appeal against this ruling.Samsung has suffered a setback in its tablet and smartphone battle with Apple.A German court has ruled against the South Korean company in a patent case, which is another leg in the lengthy legal struggle between the two technology giants.

Samsung said the ruling covers one patent out of the three mobile technologies it claims Apple infringed.Rulings on the other two will be made by the Mannheim court in the next couple of weeks. Samsung said it has yet to decide whether to appeal against this ruling.

Cool gadgets for Christmas.

2011-12-10T07:12:00.001-08:00

Don't go fishing without it?

Published on 9 Dec 2011 by itnnews - Jamie Oliver listens to your instructions as he helps you cook this Christmas in a festive app. Report by Jeremy Barnes

User's review of the Canon XF100.

2011-05-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

May 3, 2011 - This is a user's point-of-view on Canon's XF100 compact professional class camera. For detailed discussions on this camera and its family, I recommendhttp://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xf-series-hd-camcorders/

Overall, this is an excellent camera for the video journalist -- reliable auto mode for run-and-gun situation while providing all the manual controls for the 'control-freak' :-)

Video Review : Apple iPad 2 First Impressions

2011-03-06T23:31:00.000-08:00

notebooks on Mar 6, 2011 - Our first impressions and analysis of the iPad 2 after having attended Steve Jobs' keynote in San Francisco, California, where we also had some brief hands-on time with the tablet. Please note that while we were able to gain extended hands-on time at the March 2nd keynote and launch event, we do not have an iPad 2 on-hand to review at the time this video was created; please check back on or after March 11th for our complete review when we obtain a device for the Notebooks.com lab.

Nokia and Microsoft form partnership

2011-02-11T11:56:00.000-08:00

Nokia has joined forces with Microsoft in an attempt to regain ground lost to the iPhone and Android-based devices.

The deal will see Nokia use the Windows phone operating system for its smartphones, the company said.

It means that Nokia's existing operating systems will be sidelined.

Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Nokia's chief executive Stephen Elop revealed that there would be "substantial" job losses as a result of the tie-up.

Nokia will remain "first and foremost...a Finnish company. Finland is our home and will remain our home," he said.

But job losses around the world, including in Finland, will be inevitable, he added.

Windows first

Speaking about the new partnership with Microsoft, Mr Elop said that "the game has changed from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems".

"An ecosystem with Microsoft and Nokia has unrivalled scale around the globe," he said.

BBC News | 11 February 2011 - read full post

Hewlett-Packard unveils Palm-powered tablets

2011-02-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

HP is putting its the web operating system front and centre of new products

Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's biggest technology company, is making a major play for the multi-billion dollar mobile market with a slew of products based on its own operating system.

At an event in San Francisco, the company announced two new phones and a long-awaited tablet computer.

HP's new TouchPad tablet will compete against Apple's iPad, Google's Android-powered machines and RIM's Playbook.

The TouchPad is based on the webOS operating system.

This was developed by Palm and bought by HP last year for $1.2bn (£745m).

HP is hoping its investment will pay dividends with tablet sales expected to soar to over 50 million in the coming year.

HP said the mobile connected devices market is currently worth $160bn dollars.

'Jumbo phones'

The Silicon Valley company that started life in a small garage is clearly betting big that products powered by its own operating system will give it a foothold in the sector and make it a force to be reckoned with.

BBC | 9 Feb 2011 - read full report

Google eyes Apple in tablet war

2011-02-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley | 3 February 2010

Motorola's Xoom tablet will be the first built around the honeycomb release of Android

Google has unveiled an operating system for tablet computers aimed at ramping up the competition with Apple's iPad.

More than 15 million iPads have been sold since Apple launched the gadget in 2010.

The latest version of Google's Android OS is called Honeycomb and it has been specifically optimised for tablets.

The features include the ability to buy applications from a computer, buy features inside the app, video chat and improved graphics.

"This is a serious investment of years of design and engineering to really nail the experience for a larger screen," Hugo Barra, Google's director of products for mobile, told BBC News.

"This is not a large phone - we wanted tablets running Honeycomb to not just be bigger but also to be better."

Motorola will be the first to bring a product running Honeycomb to market. Its Xoom device is due to go on sale this month, although a release date and price have not yet been revealed.

"Honeycomb brings Google closer to parity with Apple and underlines the battle between these two titans," said Ben Parr, co-editor of technology news site Mashable.

"Google has its strengths especially in the cloud, with their open source platform and integration with other Google products like Gmail and Google docs," he said. "But Apple has the design edge and a vast number of apps as well as a new iPad expected in the next couple of months."

'Big win'

Google's announcement of a web-based version of the Android market is one that is seen as long overdue

.Read full report :

Progress on tablet computer for developing nations

2011-01-11T03:44:00.000-08:00

By Maggie ShielsTechnology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Click to play

BBC reporter Maggie Shiels interviews OLPC's chief technology officer Ed McNierney.

Everybody is trying to grab a piece of the tablet action at the gadget geekfest known as the Consumer Electronics Show.

Among them, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, whose mission is to bring low-powered, low-cost devices to the developing world.

They have just launched a hybrid computer that turns into a tablet, but plan to release a dedicated device by 2012.

The new $165 (about £106) XO-1.75 laptop will start shipping after the summer to countries around the world to bring school children into the computer age.

Its precursor cost around $199 (about £128) and OLPC says around two million have now been distributed.

The big challenge with the new laptop was to reduce power consumption.

OLPC chief technology officer Ed McNierney told BBC News they have slashed the wattage from five watts to two by using low powered ARM-based chips from Marvell technology.

BBC News | 09 January 2010 - Read full report

Cr-48 Chrome Notebook Already Showing Up On Doorsteps! Free limited Quantity.

2010-12-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

Two Days After Unveiling,

Ben Kessler woke up to an unexpectedsurprise on the doorstep of his New York home this morning: a Cr-48. Yes, the just-unveiled Google Chrome Notebook is already rolling out to those who requested one.

It was only two days ago that Googleunveiled that the Cr-48 would be the first computer featuring their new Chrome OS. Google was quick to note that the 12.1-inch machine would feature no branding and was simply meant to be a test machine for developers, students, and a few other demographics. They asked people to fill out a form here to request one of the limited-quantity Cr-48s.

MG Siegler| TechCrunch 9 Dec 2010

Acer To Reveal 5, 7, And 10-Inch Tablets Tomorrow.

2010-11-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Which Ones Will Run Android?

According to multiple sources, Acer is planning a special event tomorrow in New York to announce three tablets – one 5-inch (not much is known about it), one 7-inch (is expected to run Android 2.2), and a 10-inch (is expected to run Windows 7). Acer showed off a tablet several months back with a front-facing keyboard with a 7-inch screen; there’s a good chance this is the same productbut with some revisions.

The 7-inch tablet looks somewhat like a Kindle, mostly because of the front-facing physical keyboard, and could possibly be launching sometime before Christmas. It was also rumored to be running on the Tegra 2 processor with Android 3.0, but its release has been hastened in order to compete with the Galaxy Tab.

According to mysterious sources cited by Digitimes:

Acer has two internal opinions about the debut of Android tablet PCs, one is to delay the debut until after Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and Honeycomb (Android 3.x) are launched, the other is that an early debut will help compete with Samsung Electronics’ and Toshiba’s Galaxy Tab and Folio 100.

It’d be nice to see an Android tablet with the Tegra 2 processor launch here in the States, but there’s no word on Android Market access, which has quickly become one of the important issues an Android tablet has to deal with. As for the 10-inch tablet, I would venture to guess that it will indeed run Windows 7, and the 5-inch "tablet" will likely see the same path as the Dell Streak (i.e., it’s a giant phone). But who knows, maybe Acer is prepping its own awesome, 10-inch Android tablet.

Courtesy : AndroidPolice

First Look At The Jolibook: Cloudy With A Chance Of Lightning Speed (Video)

2010-11-19T18:49:00.000-08:00

France-based Jolicloud‘s Jolibook will reportedly hit the (UK) market starting today at a £279 price point (roughly $380). I’m one of the first to have received a review unit, which runs the all-new version of the company’s eponymous Linux-based cloud OS, Jolicloud 1.1.

Still, Jolicloud 1.1 is the reason I’d recommend some people – not everyone, and mainly people who travel a lot and have made the switch to Web-based applications for most of their work-related or personal activities already . . .

We already noted some of the hardware specs, but here’s the full rundown:

- Intel Atom N550 processor (1.5 GHz, dual-core)
- 250GB hard drive
- 10.1″ screen
- Memory: 1GB
- Three USB 2.0 ports
- Jacks for mic, headphones, LAN and an external monitor
- 3-in-1 card reader

more of this on Crunch Gear :

More on the software :

Camera Buying Guide!

2010-11-08T03:36:00.000-08:00

Jon Paula - Digital Camera information/review site :

CAMERA BUYING SUGGESTIONS:

** Under $300 **

Canon SX-210 IS - http://amzn.to/9rWtLZ (Riley's camera)

Canon Elura100 - http://amzn.to/djKEpR (My older camera)

JVC GR-D850 - http://amzn.to/ckyTEb

Canon SX120 - http://amzn.to/9FD7p9

Canon SD1400 - http://amzn.to/8Yq81K --- My top recommendation for beginners

Sony DCR-HC38 - http://amzn.to/a9wsBq

Samsung SMX-F44 - http://bit.ly/a6wtcs

** Under $1,000 **

Canon SX-20 IS - http://amzn.to/cTr5cg (My vlogging camera)

Nikon D90 - http://bit.ly/cuulsZ

Sony HDR-CX500v - http://bit.ly/bn8ztz

Sanyo Xacti - http://bit.ly/by3RLt

Canon VIXIA HV30 - http://amzn.to/cTUmUI

Sony DCR-HC96 - http://amzn.to/c8R2XT

** Under $3,000 **

Panasonic DVX-100b - http://bit.ly/b5ChbZ (My old main camera)

Pansonic Lumix-GH1 - http://bit.ly/aQbcPD (Jory's camera)

Canon EOS Rebel T2i - http://amzn.to/aut232

Canon GL2 - http://bit.ly/aZocDv

Sony HDR-XR550V - http://bit.ly/d9Ayl7

** Above $3,000 **

Panasonic HMC-150 - http://amzn.to/anF7GQ (My main camera)

Canon XL H1A - http://bit.ly/duXm8V

Sony HDR-AX2000 - http://bit.ly/dole1h

It goes without saying that if any of these cameras become outdated (because their successor has since be released) it's probably not a bad idea to check out the newest version of each camera listed. Again, these are just recommendations based on what I've personally used, or researched. As you can see, I'm also very partial to Canon, Panasonic and Sony - which for my money, produce the best video equipment available. But visit some of the above linked websites, NewEgg, B&H, and Amazon - coupled with any info from DPreview.com - and make your own conclusions and decisions.

Good hunting!

"The World According To Jon"

YouTube 'visionary', and creator of the hit YouTube series, "Is It A Good Idea To Microwave This?", Jonny Paula shares his opinionated and enlightened view of the world with you... one amazingly mediocre video at a time. New videos uploaded daily! Unless he posts an episode of "Jon's Adventure Vlog" instead!

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Adventure Vlog: http://bit.ly/JAVshow

Main Channel: http://bit.ly/ideoMain

Jon's Twitter: http://bit.ly/JPTwitter

Jon's Facebook: http://bit.ly/JonFBFan

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Created by: Jonathan Paula

Tablet PC for developing nations

2010-10-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

The tablet version of the XO computer should be ready by 2012

The One Laptop Per Child organisation has been given a $5.6m (£3.5m) grant to develop a tablet version of its educational computer.

The cash comes from chip maker Marvell which became a supporter and sponsor of OLPC in early 2009.

The OLPC organisation said the grant meant it had all the development cash it needed to produce its next machine.

OLPC said it would show off the first development work on the new machine at the CES show in January 2011.

more news BBC News

Skype: hero of Estonia's economy

2010-07-16T03:26:00.000-07:00

france24english | July 15, 2010 - SKYPE - The internet-telephone company hero of Estonia's economy.

Toshiba shows off touch-based netbook and new 3D laptop.

2010-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

June 20, 2010 — Here Toshiba shows off a prototype of a potential new netbook with two touch screens, one for keyboard and a new 3D laptop (very cool for playing games.

Toshiba Fights Back With The “Touch” Netbook : more below...

By Robert Scoble

The iPad is highly popular around the world and is taking market share away from netbooks. That much you can see all around you.

But, how could the other manufacturers fight back?

Here Toshiba shows a new prototype they are calling the Libretto W100 that has two seven-inch touch screens that could make the netbook more interesting to potential iPad users.

Now, hardware is only 1/8th the battle. The rest is software and there Apple is way ahead, especially if Toshiba is forced to use Microsoft's Windows, which, even with Windows 7, doesn't feel as good on touch devices as Apple's iOS does.
Continue Reading

Technology: what's next ? - TIME on the Tablet :

2010-06-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

June 16, 2010 — This collaboration between The Wonderfactory and TIME Magazine shows how the magazine will evolve over the coming months on the Tablet.

Augmented Reality.

2010-06-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

June 10, 2010 — An introduction to a new technology that adds a layer of useful information to the "reality" we see on screens of mobile phone and computers. This video can be licensed for professional use.

Apple unveils latest version of iPhone.

2010-06-08T04:38:00.000-07:00

itnnews — June 07, 2010 — Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the iPhone 4 at a conference in San Francisco, but encounters a few technical glitches.

Acer preps its second-gen Android/Win netbook

2010-04-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

by Frank Zhang on April 1, 2010

Not long after Acer announced last year that it was launching an Android netbook did the company unveile the first-of-its-kind Acer Aspire One D250. Then just yesterday Acer’s mobile product manager Martino Mombrini let slip that an updated model is on its way.

The D260, like its predecessor, will also be able to dual boot Android and Windows. Not much else is currently known about this netbook, except that the chassis is getting a redesign. But wait, there’s more.

The Acer suit also mentioned plans to out a Google Chrome OS netbook sometime in the second half of the year, which is right along the same lines we’ve been hearing all along. Chances are the company is simply waiting for Google to release the final build of the OS, which will then get stuffed in a random netbook.

Apple Tablet Teardown

2010-04-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Author: Walter Galan | iFixit - 1April 2010

Apple definitely snuck away some interesting tidbits inside -- things they didn't want people to know prior to release. Initially we thought the battery was going to be difficult to take out, but boy were we wrong!

Tools used in this guide

* Phillips #00 Screwdriver

* Spudger

* Tweezers

* iPod Opening Tools

iFixit

Gizmo - 1st Look HP Windows 7 Slate

2010-01-07T18:44:00.000-08:00

Gizmo Ep05 - Get the first look at photos from the unveiling of Microsoft and HP's Windows 7 Slate. It is a tablet that is powered by the multi-touch features of Windows 7 and features a few interesting modes like: movie mode, reading mode, and pc mode. The interesting part is seemingly a tie-up with Amazon (be it with Microsoft, HP or both were not sure.) Ballmer demoed the Amazon PC reader on the HP Slate, and the reader will ship as standard with the Slate.

Release date: later this year, and the price: about the same as a mobile phone. Our guess, pre-Christmas and around the $600-$700 mark.

Nexus One - google web phone.

2010-01-06T18:47:00.001-08:00

The Nexus One is a superphone from Google that uses the Android open source mobile operating system.The device is manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Corporation, and became available on January 5, 2010.Features of the phone include the ability to transcribe voice to text, noise canceling dual microphones, and voice directions while driving.

The phone comes unlocked and is not restricted to any particular mobile network provider. Google currently offers it for use on the T-Mobile network in the United States; a version for use on the Verizon (US) and Vodafone (European) networks is expected in the second calendar quarter of 2010.

The Nexus One was released on January 5, 2010. The phone is sold via Google's website, at a price of $529 unlocked, or a subsidized $179 when purchased with a T-Mobile two year contract. Only one plan is available for subsidized phones - $79.99 per month rate, which includes 500 minutes with unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited texting/MMS, and web data. Unsubsidized phones have no such limitation.The $179 T-Mobile price is only for individuals who are not currently under contract with T-Mobile. If one currently has a T-Mobile contract without a data package, the price of the phone rises to $279.99. If the contract has both the voice and data package, the price of the phone again jumps to a higher price bracket, which is $379.99.By spring 2010, a Verizon version will be available in the US and a Vodafone model in Europe, with plans to expand the phone to other carriers and international markets in due course.

Google is making the phone available for delivery to the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong, although native carrier tie-ups have not been finalized for these countries, and the phone will be shipped from the US. Customers ordering from the UK are charged $20 international shipping and an optional $19.99 for an AC adaptor, with an additional 17.5% VAT and 6.5% import duty being added. Singapore applies 7% GST, while Hong Kong does not add any additional taxes.For consumers outside these countries, the Nexus One is not currently shipping internationally.

Wiki

google phone tour

google phone technical specs

Intel launches new Atom for netbooks

2009-12-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

Intel has launched its next-generation Atom netbook processor, saying it will bring longer battery life and improved system performance to low-cost laptops. The single-core Atom N450 chip is 60 percent smaller than existing Atom processors, and consumes about 5.5 watts, 20 percent less than previous models. Netbooks with N450 chips will be shown by major vendors at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The chip integrates graphics and memory controller into the CPU, making it capable of playing 720p high-definition graphics natively. Intel also launched two processors for low-cost, small form factor desktops, the D410 and the dual-core D510.

Red Hat is dropping support for a different family of Intel processors in the next version of its Linux distribution for businesses. Enterprise Linux 6 will no longer run on Itanium processors used in some high-end servers. However, the company will continue to support the current version of Enterprise Linux on Itanium processors until March 2014, and some Itanium server vendors may also support Red Hat Linux for three years after that.

Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010

2009-12-22T01:29:00.000-08:00

Analysts Examine Latest Industry Trends During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 18-22, in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla., October 20, 2009 —

Gartner, Inc. analysts today highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2010. The analysts presented their findings during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, being held here through October 22.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.

These technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives. They may be strategic because they have matured to broad market use or because they enable strategic advantage from early adoption.

“Companies should factor the top 10 technologies into their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years,” said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, this does not necessarily mean adoption and investment in all of the technologies. They should determine which technologies will help and transform their individual business initiatives."

The top 10 strategic technologies for 2010 include:

Cloud Computing. Cloud computing is a style of computing that characterizes a model in which providers deliver a variety of IT-enabled capabilities to consumers. Cloud-based services can be exploited in a variety of ways to develop an application or a solution. Using cloud resources does not eliminate the costs of IT solutions, but does re-arrange some and reduce others. In addition, consuming cloud services enterprises will increasingly act as cloud providers and deliver application, information or business process services to customers and business partners.

Advanced Analytics. Optimization and simulation is using analytical tools and models to maximize business process and decision effectiveness by examining alternative outcomes and scenarios, before, during and after process implementation and execution. This can be viewed as a third step in supporting operational business decisions. Fixed rules and prepared policies gave way to more informed decisions powered by the right information delivered at the right time, whether through customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other applications. The new step is to provide simulation, prediction, optimization and other analytics, not simply information, to empower even more decision flexibility at the time and place of every business process action. The new step looks into the future, predicting what can or will happen.

Client Computing. Virtualization is bringing new ways of packaging client computing applications and capabilities. As a result, the choice of a particular PC hardware platform, and eventually the OS platform, becomes less critical. Enterprises should proactively build a five to eight year strategic client computing roadmap outlining an approach to device standards, ownership and support; operating system and application selection, deployment and update; and management and security plans to manage diversity.

IT for Green. IT can enable many green initiatives. The use of IT, particularly among the white collar staff, can greatly enhance an enterprise’s green credentials. Common green initiatives include the use of e-documents, reducing travel and teleworking. IT can also provide the analytic tools that others in the enterprise may use to reduce energy consumption in the transportation of goods or other carbon management activities.

Reshaping the Data Center. In the past, design principles for data centers were simple: Figure out what you have, estimate growth for 15 to 20 years, then build to suit. Newly-built data centers often opened with huge areas of white floor space, fully powered and backed by a uninterruptible power supply (UPS), water-and air-cooled and mostly empty. However, costs are actually lower if enterprises adopt a pod-based approach to data center construction and expansion. If 9,000 square feet is expected to be needed during the life of a data center, then design the site to support it, but only build what’s needed for five to seven years. Cutting operating expenses, which are a nontrivial part of the overall IT spend for most clients, frees up money to apply to other projects or investments either in IT or in the business itself.

Social Computing. Workers do not want two distinct environments to support their work – one for their own work products (whether personal or group) and another for accessing “external” information. Enterprises must focus both on use of social software and social media in the enterprise and participation and integration with externally facing enterprise-sponsored and public communities. Do not ignore the role of the social profile to bring communities together.

Security – Activity Monitoring. Traditionally, security has focused on putting up a perimeter fence to keep others out, but it has evolved to monitoring activities and identifying patterns that would have been missed before. Information security professionals face the challenge of detecting malicious activity in a constant stream of discrete events that are usually associated with an authorized user and are generated from multiple network, system and application sources. At the same time, security departments are facing increasing demands for ever-greater log analysis and reporting to support audit requirements. A variety of complimentary (and sometimes overlapping) monitoring and analysis tools help enterprises better detect and investigate suspicious activity – often with real-time alerting or transaction intervention. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of these tools, enterprises can better understand how to use them to defend the enterprise and meet audit requirements.

Flash Memory. Flash memory is not new, but it is moving up to a new tier in the storage echelon. Flash memory is a semiconductor memory device, familiar from its use in USB memory sticks and digital camera cards. It is much faster than rotating disk, but considerably more expensive, however this differential is shrinking. At the rate of price declines, the technology will enjoy more than a 100 percent compound annual growth rate during the new few years and become strategic in many IT areas including consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. In addition, it offers a new layer of the storage hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages including space, heat, performance and ruggedness.

Virtualization for Availability. Virtualization has been on the list of top strategic technologies in previous years. It is on the list this year because Gartner emphases new elements such as live migration for availability that have longer term implications. Live migration is the movement of a running virtual machine (VM), while its operating system and other software continue to execute as if they remained on the original physical server. This takes place by replicating the state of physical memory between the source and destination VMs, then, at some instant in time, one instruction finishes execution on the source machine and the next instruction begins on the destination machine.

However, if replication of memory continues indefinitely, but execution of instructions remains on the source VM, and then the source VM fails the next instruction would now place on the destination machine. If the destination VM were to fail, just pick a new destination to start the indefinite migration, thus making very high availability possible.

The key value proposition is to displace a variety of separate mechanisms with a single “dial” that can be set to any level of availability from baseline to fault tolerance, all using a common mechanism and permitting the settings to be changed rapidly as needed. Expensive high-reliability hardware, with fail-over cluster software and perhaps even fault-tolerant hardware could be dispensed with, but still meet availability needs. This is key to cutting costs, lowering complexity, as well as increasing agility as needs shift.

Mobile Applications. By year-end 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce providing a rich environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web. There are already many thousands of applications for platforms such as the Apple iPhone, in spite of the limited market and need for unique coding. It may take a newer version that is designed to flexibly operate on both full PC and miniature systems, but if the operating system interface and processor architecture were identical, that enabling factor would create a huge turn upwards in mobile application availability.

“This list should be used as a starting point and companies should adjust their list based on their industry, unique business needs and technology adoption mode,” said Carl Claunch, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “When determining what may be right for each company, the decision may not have anything to do with a particular technology. In other cases, it will be to continue investing in the technology at the current rate. In still other cases, the decision may be to test/pilot or more aggressively adopt/deploy the technology.”

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About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the industry's largest and most important annual gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives. This event delivers independent and objective content with the authority and weight of the world's leading IT research and advisory organization, and provides access to the latest solutions from key technology providers. Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of attendees' annual planning efforts. They rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. More information can be found at www.gartner.com/us/symposium.

Netbooks boost end of year PC sales

2009-12-17T16:10:00.000-08:00

Sales of personal computers have increased for the first time in almost a year, report market analysts IDC.

Sales of PCs climbed 2.3% in the third quarter of 2009 according to figures compiled by the firm. Sales of mobile computers were particularly strong.

The upward swing is a marked change from the previous three quarters when sales were down during every period.

The firm said strong demand as students returned to school helped to push the uptick in sales.

Demand for desktop computers was sluggish, said IDC, but sales of mobile computers continued to boom. Figures gathered by IDC suggest that sales of portable machines were up 33.5% on the same period in 2008. Also likely to be contributing to the uptick was the release of Windows 7 (Pic) in October 2009.

In particular, said IDC, sales of small portable computers or netbooks were up sharply, rising by 37% over the total in the second quarter of 2009. Netbooks are cut-down laptops that typically sport small screens and keyboards but excel at letting people connect to the net while on the move.

IDC estimates that sales of netbooks now account for about 28% of the consumer market. At the same time in 2008, their market share was 14%.

However, it said competition for buyers looking for a netbook could come from manufacturers launching ultra-thin machines, said IDC.

It also expected growth to continue in 2010 when sales would largely be driven by buyers in developing nations where growth will exceed 10%.

Portable computers will continue their popularity during 2010, said IDC, although desktop sales were likely to remain flat.

IDC said it expected growth to be persistent until 2013.

"An aging installed base of PCs to replace, along with government aid and declining average selling prices are key ingredients in a recipe for resurgence of PC shipments into the commercial market segment," said Richard Shim, research manager for PCs at IDC, in a statement.

BBC news

Intel hopes 48-core chip will solve new challenges

2009-12-12T22:09:00.000-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO--Pushing several steps farther in the multicore direction, Intel on Wednesday demonstrated a fully programmable 48-core processor it thinks will pave the way for massive data computers powerful enough to do more of what humans can.

The 1.3-billion transistor processor, called Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) is successor generation to the 80-core "Polaris" processor that Intel's Tera-scale research project produced in 2007. Unlike that precursor, though, the second-generation model is able to run the standard software of Intel's x86 chips such as its Pentium and Core models.

The cores themselves aren't terribly powerful--more like lower-end Atom processors than Intel's flagship Nehalem models, Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner said at a press event here. But collectively they pack a lot of power, he said, and Intel has ambitious goals in mind for the overall project.

"The machine will be capable of understanding the world around them much as humans do," Rattner said. "They will see and hear and probably speak and do a number of other things that resemble human-like capabilities, and will demand as a result very (powerful) computing capability."

Intel is working with companies facing large-scale computing challenges that today require thousands of networked servers. That's very much a here-and-now problem compared to the more sci-fi challenges of computer vision.

Intel's idea with the SCC and its ilk, Rattner said: "Could you replace a rack full of equipment today with one or a number of high-core count processors like the SCC?"

The chipmaker found only one flaw with the chip so far and has booted Windows and Linux on SCC systems. The company demonstrated computers using the processor running Microsoft's Visual Studio on Windows and other tasks at the event.

No silver bullet for parallel programming

The Tera-scale project doesn't fundamentally address one of the big challenges in today's computing industry, though: getting multicore chips to run today's computing jobs that are often designed to run as a single thread of instructions rather than independent tasks running in parallel. In days of yore, processor clock frequencies got steadily faster, letting single threads execute faster, but overheating issues led chip designers instead down the multicore path for trying to increase computing power.

"This isn't a full solution," Rattner said of the programming challenge. He said that from a programmer's perspective, the SCC is similar in many ways to a server with 48 cores.

While the chip may not have any silver bullets for the parallel programming challenge, it does have the advantage of some compatibility with existing computer designs. It can run ordinary software for Intel chips, unlike the increasingly capable graphics chips touted by Intel rivals Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

"Our thrust is to maintain the compatibility and familiarity of the Intel architecture as we move to more and more performance," Rattner said. "That's why we could bring up Windows and Linux environments with relatively little effort."

The system is different in some ways, though, notably in its lack of cache coherency--technology that keeps data stored in each core's high-speed memory bank synchronized with the others on the chip. By contrast, Intel's Larrabee processor, a many-core x86 chip under development for graphics acceleration, is a cache-coherent design that has a large amount of real estate devoted to caching data.

100 chips for research partners

Intel hopes to encourage academics and others to tackle programming challenges on the chip. To that end, Intel plans to share 100 SCC-based systems with various partners in industry and academia.

Microsoft is one such partner. "We're very excited about this as a research vehicle," said Jim Larus, director of cloud-computing futures at Microsoft Research.

One major feature of the SCC design is a high-speed "mesh" network that lets each of the 48 cores communicate with others or with the four linked memory controllers. The first-generation Tera-scale chip had such a network, but the second-generation mesh consumes only a third of the power and is accelerated with built-in hardware instructions for minimum communication delays, Rattner said.

That fast communication was designed in part as a response to what Intel industry partners desired, Rattner said. "They were looking for extremely low latency--not just core to core at the chip level, but interchip as well," he said.

Each link on the chip can carry 64 gigabytes of data per second.

Better power management is one element of the new design. The chip cores can be switched on or off as the chip is running.

"It's extremely clever, because it means the processor could be run in an adaptive mode. Processors could be turned on and off depending on the applications," said Jon Peddie, an analyst with Jon Peddie Research.

Overall, the chip consumes between 25 and 125 watts, Rattner said. It's built using a manufacturing process with 45-nanometer electronics features.

It consists of 24 dual-core modules linked together. A computer based on the chip can accommodate a maximum of 64GB of memory.

The SCC is the second but not last generation of Intel's Tera-scale project. In the long run, Intel is telling programmers to brace themselves for computers with thousands of processing cores.

Stephen Shankland

New MSI Motherboard Pictured, P55-GD85

2009-12-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

About a day after another MSI motherboard was pictured, namely the 890FX-GD70, yet another MSI motherboard was spotted pictured online, by the very same site and with an equally large picture gallery for all to see. Yesterday's card was set as the upcoming high-end platform, through its implementation of six PCI Express x16 slots, but, even though the MSI P55-GD85 doesn't have that many graphics PCI Express x16 slots, it still has enough for SLI and CrissFireX setups, while also integrating support for the USB 3.0 and the SATA 6Gbps interfaces.

MSI will become the next manufacturer to build a motherboard with USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps capabilities, after Gigabyte and ASUS already announced or released hardware compatible with said interfaces. The upcoming card is based on the P55 chipset and supports LGA 1156 processors. The board has an 8+2 phase DrMOS, a PLX bridge chip providing extra PCIe lanes and is capable of APS (Active Phase Switching).

Even though it doesn't have six PCI Express slots as the MSI card pictured previously, the MSI P55-GD85 still has two, just enough for a good SLI or CrossFireX setup. The motherboard, instead, features seven SATA 3.0 Gbps ports and two ports for SATA 6Gbps. The MSI P55-GD85 is outfitted with four DDR3-2600 memory slots, which will certainly satisfy any graphics controller and/or processor used with the product. In addition, besides the obvious Power and Reset buttons, the product also has an eSATA connector, a dual Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports and 7.1 channel audio.

As with all the occasions when a product is pictured ahead of time, there is no information on the pricing and availability of the MSI P55-GD85 motherboard. Most likely, the motherboard would have already been introduced by now if it was meant to come out in time for the holidays. As it is, it probably won't become official before 2010.

source : SOFTPEDIA