Yahoo has ended its talks with Microsoft about a deal narrower in scope than a full acquisition, Yahoo revealed on Thursday.
Instead, the company is nearing an agreement with Google involving its search advertising business, The Wall Street Journal reported. Yahoo made no mention of such a deal in a statement it issued late Thursday afternoon. Such deals are typically announced either before U.S. financial markets open in the morning or after they close at 4 p.m. Eastern time.
Yahoo said it has concluded talks with Microsoft because Microsoft was only interested in purchasing Yahoo's search business, not all of the company.
With respect to this, Yahoo's board decided "that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders," the company said in a statement.
Microsoft on Thursday confirmed that it was not interested in rebidding for all of Yahoo, but had been seeking an "alternative transaction" that it believed would bring Yahoo shareholders more than US$33 per share, according to a statement. $33 per share had been Microsoft's previous final bid for all of Yahoo.
Microsoft said this alternative transaction remains on the table, and did not confirm that talks between it and Yahoo have concluded.
After Microsoft ended its acquisition bid for Yahoo on May 3, the companies acknowledged that they were in talks for an unspecified deal that most observers assumed involved Yahoo's search-advertising business.
Yahoo and Google had also been in talks about a search-advertising deal for several months, a deal that Microsoft cited as one of its primary reasons for ending its acquisition bid.
In April, Yahoo announced that it would test running Google ads along with its search results. Afterward, the companies said the test had gone well, but declined to provide more details on whether they would seek a longer-term, more formal, search ad deal.
Microsoft and Yahoo failed to come to terms on either a full or partial acquisition after months of on-again, off-again negotiations. Yahoo now faces the possibility of its board members being voted out by shareholders in a proxy battle spurred by billionaire investor Carl Icahn.
Icahn and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock have been trading barbs in public letters back and forth for the past week and a half as Icahn increased public criticism of how Yahoo has mishandled its dealings with Microsoft. On Friday he told Yahoo's board to offer itself up for sale to the software giant for $49.5 billion and be done with it. Icahn also said he would seek to replace Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang if his proxy bid is successful.
In response, Yahoo's board has defended its actions of the past several months. Through this public disagreement between Icahn and Yahoo, Microsoft has remained noticeably silent, so it was never clear if the company was still interested in purchasing Yahoo for that price or any other.
Thursday's news likely will inspire more ire from Icahn, though it's not clear what he would do with Yahoo if he is successful in ousting its board but cannot find another company to purchase Yahoo.
On May 15, Icahn sent a letter to Yahoo's board announcing he is nominating 10 candidates to replace all incumbent directors at the company's shareholders meeting in July. A few days later Microsoft and Yahoo said publicly that they were both open to negotiating another deal, although not one for Microsoft to totally purchase Yahoo but instead to buy only pieces of the company.
Icahn's move and the possible shake up of Yahoo's board may have led one director, Edward Kozel, to resign on May 22. His resignation prompted Yahoo to push its shareholder meeting back to August and to operate with only nine directors until then.
Icahn's actions came after Microsoft and Yahoo failed to come to an agreement after two months of haggling on a price.
On Feb. 11, Yahoo rejected Microsoft's Feb. 1 official bid for the company of about $44.6 billion, claiming it was too low. This set about several weeks of negotiations between the companies.
During that time, Yahoo did everything it could to avoid an acquisition by Microsoft, seeking other suitors and striking the deal with Google to test Google's AdSense for Search service as one of the Web publishers that carry pay-per-click text ads from Google.
Yahoo also attempted to buy time when Microsoft threatened to mount a proxy battle for the company, which it implied it would do first in a letter to the company on Feb. 12 and later in harsher terms in a letter to Yahoo's board on April 5.
For example, on March 5, Yahoo lifted the following week's deadline for nominating directors to its board, an attempt to discourage Microsoft from trying to replace the current board with members willing to approve its Yahoo acquisition bid.
Yahoo also unveiled a flurry of product and strategy announcements in the months following Microsoft's bid, pointing out that each initiative proved it could continue go it alone as an independent company.
Microsoft eventually pushed the price it was willing to pay for Yahoo up about $5 billion, or to $33 per share, but Yahoo still wasn't happy with the price. Yahoo executives later claimed it was Microsoft that ultimately walked away from the deal the first time.
In the days that followed before Icahn mounted his proxy battle, Microsoft distanced itself from Yahoo and executives said the company was moving on. Yahoo executives, meanwhile, seemed to backpedal when it became clear board members and investors weren't happy with the deal falling through, and said they would be open to being acquired for the right price if Microsoft or another suitor came calling.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Yahoo Ends Talks With Microsoft, Possibly Nears Google Deal
Why Li-ion Batteries explode into flames
Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable battery type, which work by exploiting the movement of lithium ions between the anode and cathode. Because of their low weight to power ratio, the lack of effect of memory and slow absorption of tax loss, they are currently the most popular type of rechargeable batteries available on the market. They are most often used to power portable electronics, but their applications may reach as far as the automotive and aerospace industries.Li-ion batteries also have a bad habit of satiated in flames or explosion even if mishandled, which is not very fun when the equipment drive costs several thousand dollars. For two years, large companies such as Apple or Toshiba I felt the full impact of such anomalous behavior when they were forced to recall and replace the huge number of Li-ion batteries because of fire hazards.But what defines Li-ion batteries to heat up to dangerous levels? To understand why, one must first know some basic concepts regarding the batteries. Typical batteries have two main terminals, the anode (positively charged) and cathode (negative charge). Electricity is stored inside them ELECTROCHEMICAL compounds that mix, to release free electrons, which are then collected in cathode and provide powered device in the form of electric current.The flow of electrons is through an electronic device and then anode, thus forming a loop. Batteries are classified according to type of ELECTROCHEMICAL used to produce it, in the case of Li-ion battery that is fluid containing lithium compound, which is also extremely flammable. In addition, during the manufacturing process some metal fragments have also been created within ELECTROCHEMICAL liquid and although they may not be completely eliminated, their size and number may be limited during the proceedings.In the anode and electronic battery regions are isolated from each other with a separator, which can be easily punctured by metal fragments, if the battery experiences increase in temperature. When this happens brief compound has been found between the anode and cathode, leading to further increases in temperature.Batteries are at risk of replete of melting or flames. Furthermore, since the container holding the ELECTROCHEMICAL is completely sealed from the average, the excessive rise in temperature may cause it to give way under pressure and explode.
Best Online Casino List
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Microsoft Updates Windows Live Hotmail
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
HP TouchSmart 2 All-in-One PCs
The TouchSmart IQ504 is just a PC while the IQ506 comes with also integrated TV tuner. HP is going to launch the 2 desktop next month in 17 countries, such as UK, US and Japan.
Panasonic D-dock SC-NS570SD
The new D-dock allows you to record your CD to AAC and store in SD card in 8X speed. It support playback of MP3, WMA and AAC music files. It features 2×15W output.
SC-NS570SD can also serve as a dock for SV-SD870N and SD950N portable music players.
Yahoo: Our poison pill isn’t ‘nuts’; Icahn guessing at plan costs
Yahoo in an SEC filing fired its latest volley at billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn and defended its employee compensation plan.
The company, embroiled in a proxy war with Icahn, outlined an FAQ that it sent employees. The key excerpts:
Mr. Icahn says this Plan costs $2.4 billion. Is that what it actually costs?
No. An estimate of the amount, if any, payable under the Plan requires making assumptions about unknown facts and variables including: (1) the number of employees who terminate employment without Cause or for Good Reason within the two years following any Change in Control, (2) each such employee’s job level and base salary, (3) the number of equity awards held by each such employee on their respective severance date, the portion of those awards that are not otherwise vested on that date, and the applicable exercise price of any option awards, (4) the market price of the Company’s common stock at the time such awards are ultimately exercised or paid, and (5) the length and level of reimbursement for health care benefits and outplacement services utilized by each such employee.
Mr. Icahn quotes the $2.4 billion estimate, taken out of context, from a complaint filed in litigation against the company. This number is necessarily based on a number of assumptions, including the assumption that all of Yahoo!’s employees are terminated without Cause or leave for Good Reason following a Change in Control. No one believes that such an assumption is reasonable. For the record, the same preliminary analysis referenced in the lawsuit and relied on by Mr. Icahn and using the same assumptions (including a $35 per share stock price) as those underlying the $2.4 billion figure showed that the total payout would be $845 million or $514 million, assuming that 30% or 15% of the employees, respectively, are terminated without Cause or leave for Good Reason following a Change in Control.
Did Yahoo!’s compensation consultant say that the Plan is “nuts”?
No. As indicated above, estimating the cost of the Plan requires making a number of assumptions. Timothy J. Sparks, the president of Compensia, Yahoo!’s compensation consultant firm, explained in a sworn deposition that he used the word “nuts” to describe his opinion of using the assumption that 100 percent of Yahoo!’s employees would actually receive the severance benefits under the Plan to determine cost estimates. Mr. Sparks made clear in his deposition that his remark did not relate to the design or cost of the Plan.
Yes folks, this battle has devolved into the definition and context of the word “nuts” and the rest is the regular Yahoo said, Icahn said.
Google intentionally blocking PayPal from App Engine?
After anonymously bashing PayPal in Australia, it’s not a huge surprise that Google was caught intentionally blocking AppEngine users from using PayPal too. Could it have been a innocent mistake? Sure, but the circumstance and timing are extremely suspicious.
First, Google was outed after sending an anonymous letter to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission explaining why PayPal isn’t playing fair. Now, developers are complaining that they can’t get PayPal to work with their applications hosted on Google’s App Engine. Even after a clever work-around was posted, that stopped working too. It certainly seems like someone was making sure PayPal wasn’t going to work on App Engine.
A Google employee in the discussion group commented on the situation calling it a “bug” that stems from PayPal being accidentally listed as a phishing site. This is also strange since Google’s own anti-phishing tool gives PayPal the thumbs up. The “bug” is now apparently fixed, and developers should be able to use PayPal once again.
If I was Google, and wanted to play fair, I would simply put in my terms of service something that says the following:
Payment Services not permitted on Google App Engine: PayPal, AlertPay.com, anypay.com…
Does that look familiar? Well, it should. Check out eBay’s official policy on accepted payment methods. They explicitly state that sellers cannot choose to accept payment using Google Checkout — likely the root of the escalating tension between these two companies.
What do you think? Was Google intentionally blocking PayPal from their App Engine? Should they put a clause in their terms of service to prohibit PayPal from being used?
Intel Waiting for a Hit Product to Get MID Market Rolling
Intel is counting on the emergence of a hit product to kick-start demand for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and spur sales of its Centrino Atom chip platform.
"By the end of this year, you will have seen a whole bunch of new MIDs coming out and we'll see which ones are hits," said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Sales and Marketing Group. "You only need one hit."
Centrino Atom is based on the Silverthorne version of the Atom processor and includes Intel's System Controller Hub, a single-chip chipset that functions as the device's central nervous system. The chips were designed to be used in handheld computers that can be used to access the Internet and play multimedia files.
So far, very few devices based on Centrino Atom have been announced and given a release date; the few devices that have been announced are priced far above the US$500 target price that Intel set for these devices. The rarity of these devices means Centrino Atom shipments are also low.
The sluggish pace of the MID market stands in sharp contrast to low-cost laptops and desktops based on the Diamondville version of Atom, which uses a traditional two-chip chipset. At the Computex exhibition in Taipei last week, hardware makers were falling over themselves to showcase their latest laptops and desktops based on Atom -- and complaining they can't get enough of the chips from Intel.
There wasn't the same level of activity in the MID segment, although several prototype devices were on display. Despite that slower pace, Maloney said the MID category will get traction in the market eventually.
"As yet, we don't have any hit devices.The product's only just come out and there are a bunch of people announcing products, but the smaller a device gets the more it becomes a fashion item," Maloney said, alluding to the challenge hardware makers face when trying to gauge consumer tastes.
"It's very difficult for a CPU company to pick winners there. It's not really so much in our gene pool," he said.
Laptops and desktops based on Atom -- which Intel calls netbooks and nettops, respectively -- are a different matter. Hardware makers and Intel can draw on years of experience with these products, including the first version of Asustek Computers' Eee PC, to create devices that appeal to users.
"The netbook is more predictable, it's really like a notebook. With a MID, there's much more experimental design in it," Maloney said.
HP Launches Broad Array of Redesigned Notebooks, Displays
In one of its largest product releases, HP unveiled a bevy of PCs and displays, zeroing in on key trends such as touch-screen technology and compact laptops for business and consumer users.
HP made the announcements during its "Connecting Your World" conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
HP brought out 16 laptops, including fresh models for its Compaq "b" and "s" series for business users as well as the Compaq Presario and Pavilion line. The company also introduced a new series, EliteBook.
EliteBook models have a brushed anodized aluminum casing with a magnesium alloy chassis, which HP says complies with military-standard durability. The hard drive is shock-resistant, and the keyboard is spill-resistant. One version of the EliteBook, the 6930p, has up to 15 hours of battery life with an optional ultracapacity battery, HP said.
Some of HP's new laptops have the latest chips from Advanced Micro Devices, such as that company's Turion 64x2 ultra dual-core mobile processor. Other models have Intel's Centrino 2 and Centrino 2 with vPro, HP said.
HP said it has put some features previously only in business-class notebooks into consumer models. One is HP's ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection, which can stop a hard drive from spinning if the computer senses the laptop is falling. That feature has been incorporated in the consumer-focused Pavilion line.
HP also rolled out the Voodoo Omen desktop and the Voodoo Envy 133 laptop, which are aimed at gamers and other demanding consumers.
The Voodoo Omen can support up to four graphics processors. Omen also has copper cooling pipes, and since it is liquid cooled, HP said it runs quietly even when pushed hard. Omen starts at $7,000 and will only initially be available to those who bought a Voodoo PC before, HP said, although it will be more broadly available in around three months.
The Voodoo Envy laptop, which costs $2,099, has a carbon-fiber casing, a backlight keyboard and a "multigesture" touchpad, supporting pinch-like movements.
On the desktop, HP has launched a line that features touch-screen interfaces. Users can tap or drag a finger across the screen of the TouchSmart series of PCs to access basic features such as playing music or manipulating audio or video files.
TouchSmart PCs have a 22-inch diagonal wide-screen display, built-in DVD burner, wireless keyboard and sport an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
HP said its new DreamColor display -- an LCD (liquid-crystal display) that supports 1 billion colors -- costs just a quarter of competing displays. DreamColor will sell for US$3,499.
The company said DreamColor will accurately display colors for people where color matching has been a tricky task, such as the animation, game development and graphics arts industries. DreamColor, HP claims, cuts down on the need for multiple proofs, redesigns and color checks.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Microsoft apologize regarding opensource violation inside CodePlex project
After protest from various constituencies in the last few days, Microsoft has pulled from its site CodePlex Sandcastle project for non-compliance with the terms and conditions necessary to qualify as a good-fide open source.Sandcastle is documentation compiler for managed class libraries, which is labeled available within Microsoft permission license, one of the two Initiative approved open source licenses under which Microsoft provides access to its source code.Sam Ramji, head of Microsoft's open source and Linux team published one vazhvalyavaneto on behalf of Microsoft for OSI of Microsoft Port 25 blog on 6 June. He said on his instructions, Sandcastle was terminated, effective immediately, from Microsoft's CodePlex code-repository site. If and when you SandCastle team agreed to publish the source code, the project may be reposted in the future, said Ramji.Below is the text grabbed from Ramji’s blog:
“A number of people have alerted me in the last 24 hours that a MicrosoftIn the first hearing rumblings over Sandcastle licensing earlier this week, I was suspected Microsoft was willing to risk to the anger of OSI for documentation compiler. It's good to see Ramji & Co. do the right thing here.
project called Sandcastle, located on Codeplex, used the Ms-PL and called itself
‘open source’ yet never posted the source code.“This is unacceptable and
represents a violation of Microsoft’s Open Source policy. I take it extremely
seriously….“I apologize to the OSI on behalf of Microsoft for this mistake.”
Amazon Site Stumbles Again Monday
Online shoppers struggled to enter Amazon.com's main e-commerce site on Monday, after it had experienced similar problems on Friday.
Between 10:03 a.m. and 10:23 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time, only about 30 percent of visitors managed to enter Amazon.com, according to mobile and Internet management firm Keynote Systems, which tracks Web site performance.
After stabilizing, Amazon.com again wobbled, and its availability dropped to about 68 percent between 10:56 a.m. and 11:09 a.m., said Shawn White, Keynote's director of external operations.
After that, the site went back to normal and remains that way at press time.
However, the technical gremlins also hit the company's U.K. storefront on Monday, and the problems there are ongoing.
The U.K. site first experienced problems at 10:06 a.m. PT, and its availability dropped as low as 38 percent -- meaning that about six of 10 people couldn't enter -- but by 12:11 p.m. the availability had climbed back to about 96 percent, White said.
Asked for comment, Amazon provided this statement via e-mail: "Some customers reported intermittent problems accessing Amazon retail Web sites on Monday morning. However, we are working to resolve the issues, and Amazon's web services are not affected."
Even people who managed to enter and browse the sites faced slow performance: While Amazon.com pages typically load in six seconds or less, that average climbed to about 15 seconds during the affected periods, White said.
Gomez, another Web site monitoring firm, puts Amazon's normal average response times between 3 seconds and 8.5 seconds, but that average rose to 14 seconds on Friday and stood in a range of between 2.5 seconds and 14 seconds on Monday.
On Friday, when the availability problems lasted about 3 hours, as well as on Monday, most shoppers having access problems were getting a cryptic error message saying "Http/1.1 Service Unavailable," which means nothing to nontechnical people.
This indicates to White that whatever caused the problem proved hard to isolate, making it impossible for the company to configure its system to trigger a more intelligible alert acknowledging the problem in plain English.
White's guess is that a misconfiguration somewhere in Amazon's complex e-commerce system discombobulated unrelated pieces in its vast network of databases, data centers and application and Web servers.
If this is indeed the cause of the problems, the lesson for Amazon and anyone else is to perform rigorous testing before making any alterations, especially when the change will have an effect on many moving parts in the system, White said.
"The more complex a system is, the more challenging it is to maintain, and a configuration problem here can cause problems somewhere else," he said.
White confirmed Amazon's statement that the company's Amazon Web Services hosted technology services weren't affected by the problems on Friday and Monday.
Thirteen new Gmail features
Introducing Gmail Labs — a giant list of mostly useless Gmail extensions. Even though I’m underwhelmed by the current offering, it’s encouraging to see that Google may make Gmail more of a platform than a simple one size fits all webmail application.
It’s too bad they never added a task list feature — I wonder if they are even working on it?
The current list of items in “Labs” includes the following:
*Quick Links - A simple box of links that you can customize.
*Superstars - Additional star icons that you can use.
*Pictures in chat - You can see your friends’ profile pictures when you are chatting with them.
*Fixed width font - View messages with a fixed width font.
*Custom keyboard shortcuts - Customize Gmail shortcuts so they are easier to remember for you.
*Mouse gestures - Handy app that adds mouse gestures to Gmail. (this one is probably the best of the whole list)
*Signature tweaks - Moves the signature to before the quoted text.
*Random signature - Generates a random signature.
*Custom date formats - Probably also one of the more useful labs extensions.
*Muzzle - Hides your friends’ status message in the chat box.
*Old Snakey - Play the classic “snake” game in Gmail.
*Email Addict - Forces you to take a 15 minute break from Gmail.
*Hide Unread Counts - Removes the number of unread messages for “inbox”, “labels” etc.
Google tells us that if one of these projects breaks your Gmail, and you can’t get in, you can use the “escape hatch”
If (when) a Labs feature breaks, and you’re having trouble getting into your account, there’s an escape hatch — just go to http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 and Labs will be temporarily disabled.
To enable any of these features, click the “settings” link at the top of your Gmail interface, then click “Labs”. You can enable and disable these addons by selecting the appropriate radio button beside your favorite features, then at the bottom, click “save”.
Which ones do you like? What do you wish they would add?
Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Released
There a bunch of new Beta 2 samples to check out. I’m a fan of the Airline demo.
5 Reasons to Buy the Apple iPhone 3G
Now may be the time to become an Apple iPhone owner at last.
When the iPhone was introduced, I found it tempting ... very, very tempting. But just enough features and capabilities were missing from Apple's initial cell phone offering that I held off on buying one.
I wasn't alone in waiting, but that doesn't mean the first-generation iPhone didn't sell well. In fact, the iPhone moved 6 million units worldwide, well enough to make Apple extremely competitive in the smart-phone market.
Regardless of whether you stood in line on launch day or you chose to sit the first round out, today's announcement probably got your attention. It certainly has tongues wagging everywhere. Apple is once again in the spotlight, and that has everything to do with the iPhone 3G features the company revealed today. Should you queue up when the iPhone 3G becomes available on July 11? Read on.
1. Price
The original iPhone was innovative and groundbreaking. It also was an expensive toy. Sure, around the country both technophiles and the masses lined up to procure the original iPhone, but at $599 and $699 for the 8GB and 16GB models, respectively, the audience remained somewhat limited. As time passed, as the models' prices dropped, and as the device's reputation spread, the iPhone picked up more steam. But even Jobs himself admitted that about 50 percent of people surveyed who didn't buy an iPhone said that they didn't because of price.
With Apple's iPhone price drop, announced today, you pay significantly less money up front at the time of purchase: The 8GB iPhone will sell for $199, just one-third the price that the 4GB iPhone sold for at launch a year ago. The 16GB model will sell for $299.
Those prices put Apple's smart phone into the reach of more consumers than ever before. Only four handsets on our current Top 10 smart phones chart--Palm's Centro ($100 with a Sprint contract, $200 with an AT&T contract), T-Mobile's Shadow ($200 with contract) and Dash ($150 with contract), and RIM's BlackBerry Pearl ($150 with a T-Mobile contract)--cost less than the least expensive iPhone. And the iPhone 3G, with its integrated audio and video player, Web browsing, and GPS, offers far more versatility than any of those competing phones.
2. 3G Browsing Speed
One of the biggest drawbacks of using a mobile phone for Web activities is the lag time. Much as point-and-shoot digital cameras frustrate their users with seemingly interminable shutter lag, cell phone users roll their eyes at how long it can take for a Web page to load.
The first-gen iPhone notably omitted 3G wireless in favor of the more widely available--and significantly slower--EDGE connectivity. A year later, 3G seems even more necessary than before, as Web pages grow more graphically intensive.
Now that a 3G-capable iPhone has been unveiled, it's hard to imagine going back to not having 3G. According to Apple, Web pages will load up to 2.8 times faster. That's a compelling argument: I've waited for what felt like hours for a PC World Shopping price-comparison page to load on my old EDGE-based Treo when I've been shopping in a store, for example. I'd much rather get the information I want sooner, rather than twiddling my thumbs and reaching for a cup of coffee.
Unfortunately, 3G wireless service on AT&T has one catch: AT&T Wireless's service plans for the iPhone 3G will follow the company's standard pricing structure, which means that you'll be paying for whatever pricing plan you choose plus AT&T's unlimited 3G data services ($30 a month for personal use, $45 a month for business use). Individual users will see their iPhone bill jump by $10.
3. Greater International Support
From a multilingual keyboard that you can change out on the fly to a user-removable SIM card (a SIM-card ejector comes with the iPhone 3G), new features in this model make it much more viable for international use. Whether you need to access the Web while overseas, or you want to swap out your SIM card (presumably, after an unspecified period of time, AT&T will let its customers unlock the phone for international use, as the company has allowed with its more standard phones), this model is better than the original.
4. Applications Galore
Based on what I saw at the WWDC Keynote, Apple's approach to application development may pay off in spades. Developing applications appears simple, limited only by the constraints of developers' imaginations. Distributing the software through iTunes is genius--turning to a single repository to procure content is far easier than scouring the Web for random Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile, or BlackBerry apps you may want to download.
I see tremendous potential for useful--and downright fun--applications to come out of the development process now that the iPhone software developer's kit is available. The potential for future apps, coupled with the iPhone's existing programs--its iPod video and audio capabilities, its photo album, its easy e-mail, its Google Maps and YouTube apps--makes the iPhone 3G a unique offering in the mobile arena.
5. iPhone: Still at the Head of the Class
A funny thing happened in the past year: For all the hoopla, for all the assertions that the iPhone was a game-changer, the truth is, not much has changed in the landscape of the cell phone universe in the past year. It's almost as if Apple is so far ahead in its innovation and thinking that it has a seemingly insurmountable lead over its competitors, and is in a realm of its own as a result.
The reality is, none of the so-called iPhone killers have come close to challenging the iPhone's media handling and ease of use. That could change in the coming months as more cell phone vendors introduce updates to their lines (RIM, for example, is rumored to be working on a touch-screen interface, though its next flagship model, the BlackBerry Bold, does not have a touch screen). In the meantime, however, Apple will just be building on its solid head start.
Admittedly, not everyone will want--or need--to buy an iPhone 3G. For one thing, the much-anticipated iPhone 2.0 software upgrade that will enable the App Store for downloading applications, announced earlier this year, will be free to all first-generation-iPhone owners.
Furthermore, some people may want to hold out for a more substantial hardware upgrade, such as additional storage, a better camera, or other heretofore unimagined hardware bonuses.
I may queue up for an iPhone 3G. Or I may be patient and wait for the next big thing--which for me would be inclusion of features like 32GB of memory.
Friday, June 6, 2008
IBM’s Latest Storage Technology ‘Racetrack’ Cheaper, Faster and Reliable
When it comes to developing new technologies there is no other company who could invent fantastic innovations like IBM, we have already seen multitude of latest technologies coming from the IBM research labs like Nanophotonics technology, optical technology, vertical stacking technology, this time they have developed a new generation of memory technology named as ‘Racetrack’ which could possibly may end all our data storage woes. The storage devices built on Racetrack technology will have the ability to store 100 times more data than is possible today, consuming much less power and generate much less heat, lightning fast boot times, low cost and unprecedented durability and stability.
IBM says this technology could enable a handheld device such as an mp3 player to store around 500,000 songs or around 3,500 movies - 100 times more than is possible today. Since racetrack memory has no moving parts, and, rather than storing data as ensemble of electronic charge, uses the “spin” of the electron to store data, it has no wear-out mechanism and so can be rewritten endlessly without any wear and tear.
For nearly fifty years, scientists have explored the possibility of storing information in magnetic domain walls, which are the boundaries between magnetic regions or “domains” in magnetic materials. Until now, manipulating domain walls was expensive, complex, and used significant power to generate the fields necessary to do so. In the paper describing their milestone, “Current Controlled Magnetic Domain-Wall Nanowire Shift Register,” Dr. Parkin(IBM research center) and his team describe how this long-standing obstacle can be overcome by taking advantage of the interaction of spin polarized current with magnetization in the domain walls; this results in a spin transfer torque on the domain wall, causing it to move. The use of spin momentum transfer considerably simplifies the memory device since the current is passed directly across the domain wall without the need for any additional field generators.
The researchers are also expecting racetrack to move into the third dimension (3D) with the construction of a novel 3D racetrack memory device, a paradigm shift from traditional two-dimensional arrays of transistors and magnetic bits found in silicon-based microelectronic devices and hard disk drives. By moving into the third dimension, racetrack memory stands to open new possibilities for developing less expensive, faster devices because it is not dependant on miniaturization as dictated by Moore’s Law.
IBM also said that it would take around 8 years to fully develop Racetrack technology for commercial use.
InPhase Intros 300GB Holographic Storage Technology
Inphase Technologies has developed a new form of storage discs which are based on the holographic technology and can record data at high densities thus posing a new competition to Blu-Ray( not really as the cost is too high). The 12 cm plastic discs can store upto 300 GB of data with lifespan of 50 years. However reading these disc drives requires a special drive called the Tapestry. Continue reading ‘InPhase Intros 300GB Holographic Storage Technology’
Nvidia Launches Tegra Family of Processors
Nvidia has announced the launch of Tegra family of processors which are smaller than a US Dime and has been designed from the ground up to enable rich visual PC experience to a new generation of mobile devices. Continue reading ‘Nvidia Launches Tegra Family of Processors’
Nokia N78 Launched in India
It is the slimmest of the NSeries devices with a 2.4 inch screen, 3.5 MP camera, high speed connectivity via WLAN and HSPDA 3.5G. It will enable users to take full advantages of Nokia services such as Nokia Maps and the A-GPS. It will come preloaded with Nokia Maps of 8 cities across the country with points of interest such as bars, cafes, hotels and restaurants. A 3 month integrated navigation license also comes with the device.
It will also come with widgets enabled by Web Runtime Technology enabling users to quickly and easily access there favourite web content. It supports micro SD cards up-to 8 GB and is available for Rs 19,999.
Firefox 3 RC2: still flawed
The world seems enamored of Firefox 3. I’m not one of them. I would like to be if it wasn’t for the flaws I keep finding when using the Mac version. Now before the Mozilla PR squad descend like a ton of hot bricks as is their practice the moment anyone puts up even the mildest of negative comment I want to get a few things clear.
Like many others I’ve been using Firefox 3 for months. Firefox 2 had become a memory hog/leak nightmare but as with many tools, it’s a wrench to move away from something which has become familiar. It’s the old learning curve issue when making a switch to a different tool. No-one wants to do it and so ‘we’ users put up with problems or find workarounds. In recent times I’ve found that:
Firefox 3 beta has been a crash nightmare, especially when downloading documents for immediate viewing. The only way I could avoid that problem was to ’save’ and then ‘open.’ RC1 continued to exhibit that behavior. RC2 seems a lot better behaved.
Yes, it is speedy and no it doesn’t seem to be a mem hog. Yes the quick bookmark and bookmark organizing capability is great but no, most of my favorite add ons have yet to be updated/upgraded though I’m sure developers will have new versions available within days of Firefox going into production mode. Right now, the biggest loss is Greasemonkey. Update: Greasemonkey for RC2 now available from here.
Here’s what I found this morning. For reasons I have not been able to fathom, FFRC2 went pear shaped. By which I mean that the back button and bookmarking capabilities stopped working plus I could not set the home page to my required preference. Worse still, even after shutting down and restarting, Firefox reported it had crashed. The net effect was that I could not do a clean restart because Firefox tries to restore the browser to its former state - which was already bricked - and so the problems kept occurring. I attempted to re-import my Safari bookmarks but that didn’t work either (see screenshots.)
The only way to solve this problem is through Mozilla’s recommended complete removal and re-installation. Removing the plist file is not enough. You have to remove ~Library/Application Support/Firefox which holds all your passwords. Fortunately, I have all my passwords backed up in a separate file.
As an aside, I am finding that the Diigo sidebar and toolbar is a far superior method organizing bookmarks. I will talk about Diigo in a separate post but suffice to say it provides a rich bookmarking experience I’ve found hard to beat.
iPhone 3G to hit Europe July 1st?
IPhone Won't Beat the Nintendo DS at Its Own Game
Apple. Games. Put them together successfully and you've got power that could put a nuclear fusion reactor to shame. Combine them incorrectly, and you'll likely have to suffer several weeks of mockery for singeing your eyebrows off.
But this time, Forbes writer Brian Caulfield thinks, will be different. Because this time it's about the iPhone. According to him, the imminent launch of downloadable third-party apps for the iPhone could mean a significant challenge to game console maker Nintendo--specifically to their handheld console, the Nintendo DS.
In case you don't know your Prince of Persia from your Princess Peach, let me tell you that the DS was introduced in 2004 and has gone on to become the most popular dedicated portable gaming device around, racking up sales to the tune of 70 million. Featuring technology like Wi-Fi, a touch-sensitive screen, and an integrated microphone, you might be tempted to think that it sounds an awful lot like the iPhone. So of course they'd be in competition, right?
Well...not necessarily. Yes, there will be games when the App Store launches: even, at some point, serious mainstream titles from the likes of Electronic Arts and Sega. But the iPhone, at its heart, is not a gaming machine. Not in the way that the DS is, where every design consideration is given to one task, and one task only: playing games. The iPhone's touchscreen and motion sensors will be good for some games, and bad for others--just like the iPod's Click Wheel has proved to be.
Suggesting that the iPhone will supplant the DS, however, makes me think of all those predictions that music-playing cell phones would kill the iPod dead. Because after all, the iPod only did one thing, right?
As you can see, that worked out well.
Look, Nintendo's been around the game market a long time, and if the recent success of the Wii shows anything, it's that they know how to compete against bigger, more powerful rivals, as long as the central issue is still playing games. Downloadable applications on the iPhone will certainly help the device succeed and, in my opinion, blow past the expected 10 million mark.
But don't expect that success to come at Nintendo's expense.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Privacy flaw exposes Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan’s private MySpace photos
The recently introduced data availability initiative at MySpace allowing everyone to share their profile data with other community and social networking sites across the Web, has just suffered its first major privacy flaw exposing the private photos of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, prompting Yahoo and MySpace to disable the data availability between the services until they fix the flaw:
Pictures of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan from private MySpace profiles can be seen by anyone on the Internet, thanks to a flaw in a system that helps the social-networking site share information with other Web sites. The incident underscores a new challenge for businesses: Security becomes a multi-front challenge once you start sharing information outside your walls.
Byron Ng — a computer technician who earlier this year found a way to access Paris Hilton’s Facebook page — walked the tech-gossip blog Valleywag through a 15-step process that allows people to see supposedly-private pictures and other information by first logging into Yahoo, which is one of the sites that shares information with MySpace.
With Paris Hilton’s T-Mobile Sidekick account hacked two years ago (Hilton’s mailbox; Hilton’s contact list; Hilton’s photos), followed by her private Facebook private photos exposed last month, it’s becoming a rather common event to demonstrate a major privacy exposing leak or a security flaw by testing it on celebrities with the idea to attract as much attention as possible. All of these hacks wouldn’t be possible if their “privacy through obscurity” MySpace profiles weren’t a public secret. For instance Paris Hilton’s private profile (myspace.com/cherubrawk) and Lindsay Lohan’s profile (myspace.com/privacycunt) have already been tracked down by fans, therefore positioning them on the top of the target list for testing of flaws.
From another perspective, celebrity hacking is a win-win-win situation for both the celebrities enjoying some publicity, the vulnerable services that would provide a live fix for the millions of their users, and the celebrity hacker for, well, being the celebrity hacker. It’s also a great way to demonstrate how one service is undermining the already set privacy preferences by another service, as in this case you have an integration flaw at Yahoo undermining the privacy preferences set on a MySpace profile.
Tiny Camcorder: Fiip Video Mino Unveiled
Pure Digital, the company behind the Flip Video camcorder has added another flavor to its line of ultra-portable plug-and-play camcorder, the Mino ($180).
Flip Video is really taking this whole YouTube era and running with it by releasing another new camcorder that isn't too different than its already available wares, the Flip Ultra and Flip original. The shtick behind the Flip Video camcorders is the small size, internal memory for storing video and images, and they have a built-in USB port for easy recording and porting to a computer. The tiny camcorders are perfect for video junkies looking for ultra-portable gear.
What's New with the Updated Fiip Video Mino?
The differences between the Mino and its predecessors is the smaller and lighter body, as well as a slightly enhanced video compressor and a rechargeable battery. It does include touch-sensitive buttons and an omni-directional microphone that differs from the other Flip Video camcorders, also.
The Mino weighs in at 3.3 ounces and can easily slide into pants pockets. It has 2GB of internal memory capable of 60 minutes of recording, 2x digital zoom, tripod, TV connection cable for instant streaming and more. The Mino is available in black or white for $179. It records videos at a 640x480 resolution that won't win any cinematography awards, but be sufficient for recording that keg-stand-gone-awry at Friday's frat party.
AMD Plans External Graphics Module for Laptops
Advanced Micro Devices and Fujitsu Siemens Computers are developing an external graphics module that will boost the graphics performance of laptops based on its Puma chip platform.
"It's just a tiny little box that has our latest graphics (chip) in it," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Graphics Products Group.
The external graphics module is basically a graphics card with its own power supply. Plugging it into the laptop gives the user a big boost in graphics performance while sitting at a desk, without compromising the slim design or battery life of the machine when the user is on the move.
To make this work, AMD had to develop a new connector for an eight-lane PCI-Express link, Bergman said. USB 2.0 and IEEE1394 (Firewire) do not have the bandwidth required for the external graphics module.
Bergman hopes to get the connector design approved by a semiconductor standards body. "We're trying to get it passed through JEDEC," he said.
The module takes advantage of AMD's Hybrid Crossfire X technology, which allows the ATI graphics core in the chipset to work together with a separate, or discrete, graphics chip.
The technology is designed so that when users are plugged in they can use both the chipset and graphics processor together. When the laptop is not plugged in, only the chipset is used to conserve power and extend battery life.
"When you're walking around mobile, you don't have to worry about cooling or the power for that graphics chip. Come home, and you want to game, and you just plug (the module) in," Bergman said.
McAfee Names '.hk' World's Most Dangerous Domain
Hong Kong's ".hk" is now the world's most dangerous domain for surfing and searching, according to a report released Wednesday by security company McAfee, but the survey's methodology may mean it is not as risky as its seems.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) moved from number 28 in 2007 to the top of the company's "Mapping the Mal Web" survey, edging out its northern neighbor China's ".cn," which placed second. Finland's ".fi" was the safest, followed by Japan's ".jp."
Just over 19 percent of ".hk" contain malware, viruses, have a high rate of spam or feature aggressive pop-up ads, McAfee said, as determined by a survey of 74 top-level domains using its SiteAdvisor software. Over 11 percent of ".cn" sites for China were similarly found to be dangerous. Comparatively, only 0.05 percent ".fi" sites were found to be hazardous.
However, one Hong Kong-based security analyst said the survey did not demonstrate any real risk as emanating from the SAR. "McAfee are only looking at the top-level domain bit, they are not looking at the location of the server," said Richard Stagg, director and managing consultant at Handshake Networking, a vendor-independent security consultancy. "They're not paying attention to where sites are actually hosted."
The report is also not specific on the degree of "badness" of the sites using the ".hk" domain, Stagg said, as McAfee puts risks such as malware and annoyances like pop-up ads together.
Malware purveyors and spammers choose their top-level domain registrations based in part on where it is difficult to get a domain name shut down, Stagg said. There are "huge, huge numbers of organized crime Web sites and porn Web sites are registered with .cn domains, but most of them are not hosted in China," he said.
Purveyors of malware and spam choose top-level domains in part based on how difficult it is to shut those domains down. For example, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation can ask Network Solutions to close a .com domain, hosted in the U.S., within days, Stagg said, whereas it would have no jurisdiction with foreign domain registrars.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
More on Yahoo + Microsoft Deal..
In a new complaint unsealed under court order on June 2 as part of a shareholder lawsuit against Yahoo for failing to take a multi-billion-dollar acquisition offer by Microsoft, a number of new pieces of information have come to light. Among them:
* Yahoo’s employee-compensation plan, a thinly-veiled poison pill designed to help derail Microsoft’s acquisition bid for the company, made it less attractive for Yahoo employees to stay with Yahoo than to quit — a fact that raised red flags among third-party consulting companies, to other Yahoo managers.
* Yahoo management opposed the idea of a partnership with Google as recently as the day before Microsoft made its bid for Yahoo. (Yahoo later used the threat of an ad/search partnership with Google to attempt to get Microsoft to raise its bid for the company.)
* Microsoft bid $40 billion for Yahoo in January 2007, yet another offer that Yahoo rebuffed.
Is it really surprising that Microsoft execs say they are no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo? Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang seemed almost regretful that the Microsoft buyout proposal was seemingly off the table during his remarks at the D6 conference last week. But I’m not sure I believe anything coming out of Yahoo, at this point, about what happened over the past year-plus in its negotiations with Microsoft.
AMD makes its notebook move; Puma goes live
AMD on Wednesday unveiled its notebook microprocessor platform, formerly known as Puma, and notched a small win over rival Intel.
AMD’s notebook platform (AMD Turion-X2 Ultra), which aims to integrate graphics capabilities with its processors, stays off Intel’s ultra mobile PC turf, but has hit the market ahead of Intel’s version, which was delayed late last month.
Scott Shutter, notebook division brand manager at AMD, said the chip maker’s goal with its next generation notebook platform is to cover 80 percent of the market. That means AMD is ceding the high-speed niche of the notebook to Intel as well as the UMPC market. Shutter explained that the UMPC market just doesn’t have the demand to warrant AMD’s attention yet.
“Our roadmap has us going there (the UMPC market) in the future–the first half of 2010. We will have products that play into that space when we believe that growth warrants it,” says Shutter.
Here’s a look at AMD’s target market:
After all, AMD needs to generate good profit margins by delivering multiple configurations to the largest chunk of the market. In one respect, AMD’s notebook platform is designed to appeal to various customers ranging from gamers to consumers to small businesses. AMD’s platform is designed to be a Swiss Army knife designed to fit multiple markets. AMD is pushing the graphic capabilities in its notebook chips as well as power savings. Both of these features are expected to appeal to commercial customers also as Vista is adopted.
The launch, the first one with ATI completely integrated, is an important milestone for AMD, which has been Intel’s punching bag in recent years. Meanwhile, the two approaches between the chipmakers have been diverging. Intel talks about power, performance and energy savings. AMD talks platforms, plays down speed as the sole differentiator and talks about better graphics and virtualization capabilities. True to form, AMD didn’t initially release speeds on its platform pending a press conference later today.
It’s unclear how much the speed difference between Intel and AMD will matter in notebook chips. AMD’s pitch was touting graphics performance. If it could beat Intel’s speeds, it’s safe to say we would have heard about it. The broader question is how much speed is valued in the overall microprocessor purchase.
A look at AMD’s graphic performance claims:
“IT buyers look at laptops as commodities,” says Shutter. “And our relationship is with the OEMs. As long as we have the feature set we’ll see growth.”
Yet Another Personal Area Network Technology
Ozmo wants to be part of the latest round of Personal Area Network (PAN) technology, which this time leverages Wi-Fi. Ozmo gets a lift by being partly Intel funded, and working closely with Intel on the chip giant's Cliffside development project, which allows a single Wi-Fi radio to serve two separate purposes--in this case making a network connection and serving a PAN at the same time. (Cliffside is part of a larger initiative--"Carry Small, Live Large"--to provide a laptop experience in a small but powerful mobile device.)PANs are designed for short distance associations with a computer or handheld device; typical uses are for low-bandwidth peripherals like input devices (keyboards, mice, pens, and trackballs), synchronization with handhelds and smartphones, and audio via headsets and headphones, as well as high-bandwidth applications like streaming high-definition video, wireless computer displays, hard drive connections, and so on.Ozmo is square in the middle of this. The idea with Cliffside in general and Ozmo's solution in particular is that a Wi-Fi radio is wasted by handling just wireless LAN traffic. What if that radio could serve two masters? It could handle a WLAN connection and act like a PAN hub for peripherals. An Ozmo spokesperson told me that while Intel is their first partner on their product--Intel will embed Cliffside technology within a year into their laptop designs--that other Wi-Fi chipmakers could work with them to develop drivers that would allow existing and new laptops to offer WLAN/PAN connections. One of Ozmo's key markets is selling chips to peripheral makers.This technology tries to give the boot to Bluetooth, which is embedded in well over a billion devices sold to date, and is expected to be built into half a billion cell phones sold in 2008 alone, excluding the tens of millions of computers sold with Bluetooth radios. This seems like a lot of inertia for a technology that has, as its biggest problem, the difficulty of pairing two devices. (That's mostly a legacy issue: Since version 2.1 of the standard, Bluetooth devices can be paired with a simple PIN instead of the former process that took as many as 15 steps on some operating systems.)Where Bluetooth's current 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) standards operates at 3 Mbps, Ozmo is proposing 9 Mbps for its Wi-Fi based flavor, which they claim would provide the overhead for crisper audio among other purposes. Ozmo is also claiming better battery life for peripherals relative to Bluetooth. (Another PAN technology, ultrawideband (UWB), has only barely reached the market. It can offer speeds from 100 to 500 Mbps, depending on distance, but can't yet be built into tiny, battery-powered peripherals. It's really an extension of USB, and some flavors will be sold as Certified Wireless USB.)Ozmo's argument rests in part on the fact that Bluetooth isn't built into all the devices that have Wi-Fi; nearly all laptops are sold with Wi-Fi radios, but only a third (according to some research) have Bluetooth radios as well. With major Wi-Fi chipmakers all having in-house Bluetooth divisions or partnerships with Bluetooth chipmakers, it seems like a short-term blip that Bluetooth has an undercount compared to Wi-Fi.Bluetooth has some tricks up its sleeve, too: Bluetooth High Speed. This hybrid mode allows a Bluetooth driver to recognize when a bulk data transfer needs to be made and switch to using a Wi-Fi adapter to handle that part. This uses Wi-Fi at its best advantage, while still preserving the typically lower power usage of Bluetooth.It's also a bit ironic that Intel, which is pushing future devices that will contain Wi-Fi, WiMax, and possibly 3G cell data radios on a single platform, is carping that much about a second radio that shares quite a lot with Wi-Fi already.
Ozmo has chips to sample for original equipment manufacturers now, with volume production due in the fall.
Will Online Auctions Die Out?
Once a shining example of the potential for online profit, auctions on eBay may now be a dying breed, according to an interesting BusinessWeek story out today.
I never really got into auctions myself, but I remember working in offices in the 90s when coworkers eagerly scoured auctions and monitored bids in the
hopes of scoring a low-priced deal. Stories left and right chronicled yet another lucky Joe who left his unfulfilling job to make a living selling gems, junk or both via the definitive auction site.
Now those auctions are losing out in favor of fixed-price sales, according to the story. eBay auctioneers are up in arms about fee changes from January that favor the faster, set-price sales, which the story says are growing quickly on the site.
So will auctions fade away to niche-y sales of memorabilia and collectibles, while traditional straight sales reassert their dominance in the new digital businessplace? The BusinessWeek story makes it seem like that could happen. There's also commentary on the Rough Type blog (found via Techmeme) on the topic that suggests the same.
Microsoft Clarifies XP SP 3 Flash Issue
Microsoft Clarifies XP SP 3 Flash Issue
Amid concerns that users of its Window XP Service Pack 3 operating system may be vulnerable to online attacks, Microsoft has finally broken its silence and explained which XP users need to upgrade their Adobe Flash Player software.
The confusion started Monday, when handlers at the Internet Storm Center pointed out that Microsoft had quietly noted that the recent XP SP 3 was vulnerable to five Flash bugs patched in November 2006. Some took this to mean that if an XP system was updated to Service Pack 3, it would somehow wind up with an older, buggy, version of the Flash Player.
Microsoft originally declined to comment on the matter, but on Tuesday it reconsidered and said that this is not the case.
"Microsoft does not ship any version of Flash in the Windows XP Service Pack 3 update that customers use to update existing SP2 machines," the company said in a statement.
However some people who build new XP systems using SP3 will need to update their software. "A new system built using a copy of Windows XP with SP3 integrated will install the original Flash 6 that shipped with Windows XP Gold and will need MS06-069 installed from Windows Update," Microsoft said.
They should, however, be running the latest version of the player, 9.0.124.0, which includes bug fixes that protect against an attack currently being used by criminals.
Just last week Symantec mistakenly reported that attackers had discovered an unpatched zero-day flaw in the Flash Player. The bug turned out to be something patched in April, but nevertheless, it is being exploited in a fairly widespread attack, so having a vulnerable version of Flash is a dangerous proposition.
But that incident, combined with Microsoft's initial silence on the XP SP 3 issue, has made things tough for Windows users, said Susan Bradley, a Windows blogger who is chief technology officer with Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn and Braun, Accountancy Corp. "It is very confusing," she said. "First we were really freaking out because we thought we had a zero-day," she said, "Now we've got this bulletin that says if you apply this, you're [in trouble]."
Users can find out if their PCs are running the latest version of the player by checking with this Adobe Web site.
Ballmer: Software Makers Face Big Challenges
Improvements in processing speeds, storage space and wireless broadband will drive a new revolution in information technology, but software makers face several challenges in their efforts to keep up, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Tuesday.
Software makers need to create better natural interfaces, simplify programming tools and create better search and analytical tools for computer users, Ballmer told a crowd of about 700 people at the American Electronics Association's annual technology for government dinner in Washington, D.C.
Ballmer told the crowd he was optimistic that a new computer revolution would happen in the next 10 years, but he also ticked off a series of challenges for the IT sector.
Computers contain massive amounts of information about their users, but they still don't anticipate their users' needs, Ballmer said. That's where better natural interfaces can help.
"You want your computer to not only understand your words, but start to remember things about you and your intent," he said. "'Get me ready for my trip to Washington, D.C.' My computer knows absolutely everything my secretary does, but my secretary does a better job on that problem today."
Part of the problem is that search technologies haven't changed much in the last five years, Ballmer said.
"Your ability to find and analyze information will go up in orders of magnitude," he said. "Really searching deeply, picking up information and being able to assemble it is still pretty hard to do."
Ballmer also suggested that software development is still too complex, and integrating separate computer systems still too difficult. The complexity of software development is still the "bane" of the IT industry, he said.
Ballmer envisioned a near future where he could be watching television in a hotel room halfway across the world from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and connect instantly to Gates to point out a pivotal moment in a televised sports event. Ballmer could say, "Bill, did you see Tiger [Woods] make that putt," and his computer would automatically connect him to Gates and they could watch the putt together. If Gates wondered what brand of golf ball Woods was using, Ballmer could capture the image on the screen, search for matching images online and order two dozen balls for the two of them.
When audience members chuckled, Ballmer responded, "We're not that far away."
Ballmer also predicted that "all information" will soon be consumed digitally. Massive amounts of storage space and inexpensive, paper-like computer screens will soon be available, he said, and few people would read anything on paper.
Software will also become more fluid, with constant changes happening to software packages that were once delivered on hard media, he said.
IT is just in the early stages of transforming science, education and health-care, he said. Ballmer said he plans to remain at Microsoft for the next nine or 10 years, and he's "pretty excited" about the advances in IT that will come in that time frame.''
"There's never been a better time," he said. "The next 10 years will bring even more innovation and excitement and energy than the last 10."
Monday, June 2, 2008
On the fast track to tiered storage
Companies leave data on primary silos well beyond the time when they should migrate it to a less expensive tier. This is one of the few truisms on which all storage vendors seem to agree.
Of course, that agreement fades away when it comes time to define how to address the problem. Every vendor offers its own proprietary approach to facilitating allocation between storage tiers, and this variety poses one of the most formidable challenges storage administrators face as data volumes continue to increase drastically year after year.
One approach that a number of vendors are taking is to inject their products with the capability to assign aging criteria to business data and to automatically move "old" data to a different tier according to easily defined policies.
Compellent was one of the early vendors to include automatic data-migration capabilities in its products. I currently have one of Compellent's SANs in my lab for evaluation. In addition to management software and enclosures for supporting various storage tiers, it offers FC (Fibre Channel) and iSCSI connectivity; thin provisioning; choice of multiple disk drives architectures and RAID levels.
Compellent recently began shipping Version 4.0 of its Storage Center management suite. The new version includes, among others, Fast Track , a new feature that take advantage of the different access speed between the tracks of a physical disk drive.
Although not completely new, Fast Track is interesting because it creates tiers inside the disk drive in order to assign the most responsive areas of each device to the most demanding applications. Pillar Data offers a similar feature in its products. But what I want to focus on is the most traditional move of data across tiered storage -- what Compellent calls Data Progression.
For my Compellent test, I have three 3U enclosures, including one controller and two storage arrays -- one with FC and the other with SATA drives. The controller manages the connections between servers and storage arrays and hosts the management software. Compellent SANs support FC on both the front end and the back end, but because performance-testing was not an objective at this time, I decided to implement iSCSI links for my servers, leaving FC as a path between the controller and each storage enclosure.
This is what my Compellent storage environment looked like from the Storage Center GUI after a quick installation. As shown in that image, the available storage is already split in two segments, with the 15K RPM drives of the FC enclosure assigned to tier one and the comparatively slower SATA drives making up tier three. Tier two is empty in my basic setup but could be filled with an intermediate set of drives -- 10K RPM enclosures, for example.
How do you take advantage of those tiers? It starts by defining a volume: In addition to parameters such as the space to use and the number and frequency of snapshots, you can tell Storage Center's volume creation wizard how to move the data stored in that volume across tiers. Remember the Fast Track feature? For data that needs the shortest possible response time, just assign "fast" rather than "standard" track when creating the volume.
The nice touch that Compellent's Data Progression brings to tiered storage is that you don't need to analyze data or move the volume somewhere else: Behind the scenes, the system will keep track of the passing of time and will automatically migrate aging blocks to a lower tier. Should an access pattern change (say, blocks that were not accessed in months are now touched daily), the system will automatically revert the flow, moving those blocks back to a higher tier.
Controlling those flows is, you guess it, another management option. Using these settings, data that has not been touched for 12 days will be moved to a lower tier, but as I left a 4:1 ratio between down flow and upward flow, that data will be moved back if it is accessed three days in a row. Obviously, you can change those numbers to what works better for each business application.
Speaking of which, it's worth noting that from an application perspective those blocks may have never moved. The only difference could be, if ever noticeable, a slightly longer access time, milliseconds perhaps, when those data blocks are on a slower tier.
I have to let time pass to see the effect those parameters have on my volume. But I can already say that, although it may not respond to every requirement, Data Progression is one of the most effective tiered storage management solutions I have seen. It may not give you a way to classify data, say, for compliance, but it's an easy, reliable way to reduce the clutter on your primary storage devices while making sure business access is not slowed down in the process.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
N95-3 (US) gets firmware upgrade to 20.02.011
The long awaited firmware update for the N95-3 (US version) is now available according to Symbian-Guru (sources from Howard Forums and N95Users). The update brings the US version of the N95 up to speed with its world siblings. It adds demand paging, Flash Lite 3, Web Run Time, Idle Screen Nokia Search and significant performance improvements.
Flash Lite 3 allows for the viewing of Flash Video (e.g. YouTube). WRT allows you to install and use WRT widgets. Demand Paging offers improvements both in start-up time, application speed and memory usage. Other peformance updates include speedier image capture by the camera.
The updated firmware can be downloaded and installed via Nokia Software Updater which is available as part of recent version of PC Suite.
Cell Phones of the Future
You think your Razr's cool? When it comes to mobile phone design, you ain't seen nothin' yet
By Olga KharifClamshells and candy bars be gone. Tomorrow's cell phones may bear little resemblance to the snap-open handsets or even the sleek, flat rectangular phones we sport today.
Visionaries from design firm Pilotfish and sensor maker Synaptics have created a phone that has no buttons. It's operated with gestures. Designer Manon Maneenawa has built a phone that can be converted into an alarm clock or a wrist watch. Sweden's GoldVish just began selling a phone for $1.26 million that features diamonds and a secret compartment.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Dell Increases Revenue and Earnings, Lowers Operating Expenses
Dell today reported record fiscal first quarter revenue of $16 billion, a 9 percent year-over-year increase, and earnings of $0.38 cents per share, a 12 percent increase. The results were driven by better-than-industry growth of commercial and consumer products and services, and lower operating expense as a percent of revenue. Product shipments in the quarter increased 22 percent, with servers growing three times the industry rate at 21 percent. Storage revenue increased 15 percent and enhanced services revenue was up 13 percent. Notebook unit growth, a Dell strategic priority, rose sharply at 43 percent and 1.2 times the industry growth rate. Consumer units grew at more than two times the industry rate and the company increased its global share by 1.2 points to 8.8 percent during the quarter. “We are executing on all points of our strategy to drive growth in every product category and in every part of the world,” said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO. “These results are early signs of our progress against our five strategic priorities. Through a continued focus, we expect to continue growing faster than the industry and increase our revenue, profitability and cash flow for greater shareholder value.” Earnings per share in the quarter were affected by the following items:
Dell’s headcount has been reduced by 7,000 in the past year – including a reduction of about 3,700 in the first quarter – or 8 percent before the impact of acquisitions. Dell has added about 2,700 employees through acquisitions, making the net reduction for the company about 5 percent.
Operating expenses were 12.9 percent of revenue for the quarter. Cash flow from operations was $143 million and impacted by lower payables and tax and bonus payments. The company still expects to generate cash flow from operations in excess of net income on an annualized basis. Dell ended the quarter with $9.8 billion in cash and investments and weighted average shares were 2.04 billion.
In the quarter, Dell issued $1.5 billion in private placement and medium- and long-term notes to be used for general corporate purposes. Dell spent more than $1 billion to repurchase 52 million shares of stock and plans to spend at least $1 billion on share repurchase in the second quarter.
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Get an Auto Loan the Smart Way
Did you know that most people pay hundreds or thousands of dollars more on auto loans than they have to? Get an auto loan the smart way. Read on.
Most people really get taken for a ride on their auto loan. Did you know that differences in the total cost of different auto loans can run into a thousand dollars or more? Here’s how you can get the lowest rate:
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Make a list of different auto loan lenders and their interest rates and terms, before you go to the dealer (the web is usually the easiest way to do that). Did you know dealers get a commission on the loans they refer? If you’re not careful, that extra bit of money for the lender could mean you pay a higher rate than you would if you got the loan yourself.
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Get a credit report and figure out your FICO scores. Removing any incorrect negative information from your report will help you get a better deal. Knowing exactly what your score is will help you figure out what interest rate you can realistically get.
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Have bad credit? Try going to your credit union, bank or another institution where you have a relationship. Lenders like to help out established customers. If your bank still won’t help, online "bad credit auto loan" lenders usually offer better less expensive loans than dealers who advertise their great deals for people with poor credit.
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Use a vehicle loan calculator. It will tell you what your loan will cost each month. It saves you the time of looking at vehicles you can’t afford, makes you aware of what information you’ll need to apply for a loan, and is a "reality check" of your financial condition.
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Comparison shop, comparison shop, comparison shop. You don’t get the least expensive car by choosing a dealer at random, and you won’t get the least expensive auto loan that way, either.
Start researching your options now
Get credit reports and FICO scores here
Use this vehicle loan calculator
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