Tomorrow's News Today
|
|
|
Please visit our Sponsor
| Tech News for Tuesday August 1st 2000Microsoft
slashes price on Windows Me. Street prices for the last three versions of Windows for consumers hung at $89, but the company will offer Windows Me for $59. The new operating system goes on sale Sept. 14. Microsoft may have good reason for the fire sale, say analysts, who note few consumers upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows 98 or from Windows 98 to Windows 98 Special Edition without special incentives. While Microsoft has successfully wooed PC makers to quickly move to the newest version of Windows, it has had a hard time getting customers to buy boxes off the shelves, analysts say. Microsoft's Windows Me discount strategy could help spur retail sales, but analysts aren't convinced it will help all that much. "Microsoft makes too many new features available for free download on the Web, and that gives consumers less incentive to buy in stores," said PC Data analyst Mark Bates. Also looming over the Redmond, Wash.-based company are allegations of overcharging related to its antitrust case and more than 130 private lawsuits. Microsoft is aiming to boost sales as it prepares for a period of slower growth. Red
Hat Linux 7.0 Beta Arrives. Red Hat has posted a beta version of its upcoming Red Hat Linux 7.0 distribution, code-named 'Pinstripe'. Not many details surrounding the release have been announced, however the beta may be downloaded from many Red Hat FTP mirror sites. This release is far from perfect, so feel free to hack away and report bugs using BugZilla. ALL-IN-WONDER
RADEON from ATI. ATI Technologies today
announced the ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON board. It is the newest member of the
company's ALL-IN-WONDER series of all-in-one TV, Video and Graphics cards. This
card is based on ATI RADEON graphics processor and is equipped with a TV tuner
and a TV-Out. It provides digital audio during DVD playback using the S/PDIF
connection. Another innovation is the support for the latest DVI (Digital Video
Interface) compatible digital displays. The DVI-I connector on card enables the
user to attach a digital display directly or a traditional VGA type analog
display via the included DVI-I to VGA adapter. ADI
unveiled the new series of pure flat color monitors. Not overly exciting since everyone is waiting for flat-screen monitors be priced more reasonably. ADI Corporation unveiled the new series of pure flat color monitors - ADI MicroScan F520/F720/F730. Incorporated with advanced pure flat CRT tubes and cutting edge 3D* technologies and speakers*, F series offer great picture performance and create an exciting viewing environment for power users as well as 3D game lovers. Kingston
& Micron DDR Memory. Two of the top memory maker heavyweights have announced that they will be manufacturing DDR-RAM which is the new memory that will replace today's 133mhz SDRAM. Yesterday iWill announced the first DDR motherboard so the change is starting sooner than expected. Kingston Technology Co. Inc. here today announced plans to ramp production of double data rate (DDR) memory modules in the fourth quarter after beginning initial samples of products to system manufacturers. The memory modules supplier said it is expanding its manufacturing capacity by 30% with the addition of an advanced surface-mount technology lines for DDR and other high-performance products. The company said it has begun shipping samples of DDR dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) to original equipment manufacturers for use in system development. These modules are expected to be used in new servers, workstations, desktop computers and mobile systems--all of which are set for introduction in the fourth quarter this year and 2001. Both 200-MHz and 266-MHz DDR DIMMs will be shipped in volume. Micron Technology Inc. today said it was cooperating with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to provide double data rate (DDR) synchronous DRAMs to product development engineers worldwide using the Internet. The DDR memory offering is being made directly to development engineer by Micron's Web-based memory upgrade business unit, called Crucial.com. The memories are expected to help AMD promote DDR SDRAM support for its high-speed Athlon processors. Micron has been pushing its DDR SDRAMs to support both AMD and Intel Corp. processors. A range of modules are offered by the Crucial.com Web site, with densities of 64 megabytes to 1 gigabytes. The modules include both PC166 versions using 200-MHz chips as well as PC2100 units with 266-MHz chips. In addition, Micron has developed a DDR chip set, called Samauri, which could be offered on the market and produced by silicon foundries. The Boise company also said it will license the Samurai design to chip-set vendors. Intel
bumps up Pentium III speed to 1.13 GHz. Intel is once again the speed king - for this week at least. SANTA CLARA, Calif.--In a move keep its Pentium III ahead of rival Athlon processors, Intel Corp. today announced a 1.13-GHz version of its MPU. The 1.13-GHz Pentium III is available now in limited quantities, selling for $990 each in 1,000-piece lots, said Intel. Tech News for Monday July 31st 2000Random
House opens e-book division. NEW YORK--Book publisher Random House today said it has launched a unit for electronic books, joining other publishers exploring the new digital medium. The company, part of Germany's Bertelsmann media powerhouse, said in a statement that it has set up a 20-book list of original electronic fiction and nonfiction. The titles include the memoirs of a New York dominatrix and a writer's search for a baldness cure. Random House, the second biggest U.S. publishing house to set up an electronic imprint, will call its new operation @Random. Amiga/Matrox
Partnership. Somehow the Amiga name just manages to keep popping up. I sincerely hope the company and the ideology survives. Just recently, Matrox announced a strategic partnership with Amiga, a company dedicated to making one unified OS - mainly for games. As you may recall, Amiga used to be a total system solutions providers - their own hardware, their own software...the whole nine yards. However, the new Amiga's business model is a bit different. They are planning on working with third party developers to create the hardware they need, while they stick to the software alone. This is the part where Matrox comes into play. As announced last week, Amiga will be looking towards Matrox to provide a graphics solution for their next platform. According to the press release, Amiga is looking for Matrox's "upper hand" in 3D solutions. However, a recent post on an Amiga newsgroup apparently contradicts this statement. Sony
to test movie downloads via internet. Sony Pictures Entertainment is preparing a trial to securely download movies over the Internet. "We believe that movie business must not wait like the music business, until Napster or some other equivalent steals our movies," said Howard Stringer, chief executive officer of Sony of America and acting chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The trial is planned to take place at the end of this year. Creative
plans disk drive-based MP3 player. SINGAPORE--Creative Technology is counting on a new device that uses a disk drive to store music downloaded from the Internet for a repeat of its success with computer sound cards. The Discman-size Jukebox's key feature is its ability to store up to 100 hours of music. The device uses a 6GB disk drive and plans to upgrade to a 12GB drive when a new version of the Jukebox is released next year. As a reference, 50 gigabytes can store a stack of memos more than three times the height of the Eiffel Tower. Creative gets its drives from IBM and Fujitsu, which are among the world's five biggest disk drive makers. nVidia
GeForce2 MX review. nVidia has released a "scaled-down" version of the GeForce 2 GTS graphics processor to support dual monitors
In fact, a quick look at this table gives us to understand that GeForce2 MX is a lighter version of GeForce2 GTS and that NVIDIA absolutely correctly positioned it as a mainstream solution against the background of the performance desktop GeForce2 GTS. However, these few issues are far not all the innovations introduced in new NVIDIA chip. So, let's discuss a couple of other interesting peculiarities, which may serve as very important attractions. New
Intel "Brookdale" Chipset. Intel will introduce the Brookdale in the third quarter next year. Versions of the Brookdale chipset, managing the data flow between a processor and other computer components, will work with Intel's Pentium 4 processor and support PC-133 synchronous dynamic random access and faster double data rate memory chips. Intel on Wednesday ended its endorsement of a memory designed by US-based Rambus Inc as the only standard to be used with its Pentium 4 processor, scheduled for release later this year. The world's largest chipmaker said it would design a Pentium 4 chipset to work with SDRAM memory. Windows
2000 SP1 Available For Download. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000 late Friday evening. The service pack fixes numerous bugs and offers more hardware support to the OS. Click here to view the complete list of fixes. Download it here. Tech News for Friday July 28th 2000Sprint
to offer 56K wireless access. It may seem like not such a big deal obtaining 56k connections - but over a wireless connection - that is fairly impressive. Sprint will take a major step toward attracting business professionals this summer when it becomes the first provider to offer 56K wireless access. The measure will help Sprint (NYSE: FON) improve its stake in a segment that has so far eluded the company. The company will use compression technology to achieve the 56K transfer rate. Full story to follow. -- Richard Shim, ZDNet News Napster
backlash? RIAA site crippled. The Recording Industry Association of America's Web site was knocked out of commission for at least two hours Thursday morning, either by heavier-than-expected traffic or a denial of service attack. Windows
2000 SP 1 Due August 1st. ActiveWin reports that Microsoft will releasing Windows 2000 service pack 1 on August 1st. It may be a prudent move to wait until several other people have downloaded it and experienced all the "side-effects" since Microsoft's service packs are notorious for creating havoc. It looks highly likely that Microsoft will finally release its long awaited first service pack for Windows 2000 on Tuesday August 1st. The final version went "rtm" on June 21st and seems set for this release date according to various sources. $500
million on Microsoft XBox launch. "We have to build demand for this to be successful," Robbie Bach, senior vice president of Microsoft's games division, said during a financial analysts' meeting at the company's headquarters today. "This will be the biggest launch ever done. You can see half a billion dollars (spent) in the first 18 months of the project." ..... As previously reported, the Xbox will use a Pentium III processor from Intel and a custom 3D graphics processor from Nvidia. It will have 64MB of memory, an 8GB hard drive, a DVD drive and an Ethernet connection for high-speed Internet access. Sony
demos Memory Stick-sized camera. TOKYO — Sony Corp. has developed a working digital still camera in a format only slightly larger than its Memory Stick memory card. The camera packs all the functions necessary to capture VGA images — including a 330,000-pixel image sensor, monitor display battery and removable storage — into a 21.5 x 62.5 x13-mm format weighing 26 grams. Sony employed a bare-chip-mounting technology at a 67-micron pin pitch. The camera's 0.55-inch-diagonal, high-temperature polysilicon color LCD offers 180,000-dot resolution. The polymer rechargeable battery measures 21 x 38 x 6 mm, weighs 7 grams and provides 210 milliamp-hours capacity. Cisco
Announces 15th Acquisition This Year. I don't think we've ever seen so many aggressive take-over's in one year. Cisco Systems on Thursday said it will acquire NuSpeed Internet Systems, whose technology links storage networks with communications networks, in a stock swap worth $450 million. It is the 15th acquisition announced by Cisco (stock: CSCO) this year and the second this week, as the company continues to expand its product portfolio by acquiring companies with strategic technology. Microsoft
Preps 'Whistler' Beta Release For Fall. We just begin to settle down with Windows 2000 and start to iron out all the problems when Microsoft gears up for another new OS. Microsoft plans to soon release the first test version of new Windows software that will finally unify two flavors of its computer operating systemand save the software giant time and money, the company said Thursday. The new software, code-named Whistler, will be available in beta, or test, form this October, just a month after the release of Windows Millennium, an update to the Windows 98 product aimed at average consumers. Windows is split into two families: one meant for consumers and home users that is based on aging DOS programming technology, and one for business clients based on the more stable and secure NT technology. Whistler marks the biggest step towards ditching the old DOS code and moving all of Microsoft's products and development efforts to NT-based projects. ``We are really now driving to a single code base across our entire Windows product line,'' Brian Valentine, senior vice president for the Windows division, told a meeting of financial analysts. Napster
alternative buckles under traffic pressure. A popular Gnutella download site was knocked offline today under a surge of demand, as music aficionados flocked to Napster alternatives following a court ruling that ordered a shutdown of the file-swapping company. "Due to the unprecedented traffic volume following the Napster decision we had to take the servers offline temporarily to increase bandwidth and capacity," read a message late today on one Web site that hosts Gnutella software downloads. "The site will be up again in a few hours as soon as the necessary upgrades are completed." A similar message appeared on the Web site for Scour Exchange, a service that allows people to find and download music and video files from each "We've maxed out our bandwidth," blared a message on the site, which promised the situation is only temporary. However, the Scour Exchange site appeared to be working normally despite the message. According to one person who uses Scour Exchange, new members topped 10,000 in a single day--up from between 300 to 800 people per week in the three weeks leading up to the ruling. Usually the service has from between 25,000 and 30,000 active users at any one time, this source said in an email to CNET News.com. Intel,
AMD battle for chip speed crown. AMD is also busy preparing Athlon chips for the notebook market. In the fourth quarter, the company will come out with Corvette, a low-power version of Athlon for deluxe notebooks and desktops, and Camaro, a similar chip for budget portables.\ FreeBSD
4.1-RELEASE Now Available. The 4.1-RELEASE of FreeBSD is now available for i386 and alpha in "FTP installable" form, and can be installed directly over the net using the boot floppies or copied to a local NFS/ftp server. ISO images will also be provided August 1st. Following the release of FreeBSD 4.0 in March, 2000, many bugs were fixed, important security issues dealt with, and quite a few new features added. Please see the release notes for more information. ADS
announces 48Mbps USB PCI card. ADS Technologies will ship on August the new USB Turbo Quad 4 -- the 48Mbps USB PCI interface card that will be priced $59.95. The new card employs Lucent's USS-344 QuadraBus IC that integrates four USB 1.1 host controllers into a single chip. This chip allows USB Turbo Quad 4 to supply each port with a full 12Mbps bandwidth. In essence, the chip is able to provide 4 times more bandwidth than any other USB chipset on the market. In the past, USB PCI cards are limited to sharing 12Mbps among two or more ports. Until the introduction of Intel i815 chipset, motherboards also share this property. Windows
2000 Service Pack 1 goes gold. M$ insiders
told The Register today that SP1 has finally been released to manufacture after last
minute hitches twice prevented the code going gold. Judge
Pulls The Plug On Napster. I personally think that going after technologies similar to Napster is a waste of the tax payers money. The cat is out the bag and cutting off Napster is not going to stop the swapping of MP3 audio - there are a handful of other music search/swapping engines. What is the government going to do when someone creates another Napster outside the US territory? Unless Napster successfully wins an appeal against the Judge's court order the site will be shut down tonight at midnight. Tech News for Wednesday July 26th 2000New
Digital Camera Prints Photos Instantly. I was wondering when someone was going to develop a digitial camera that prints the pictures directly as did the polaroid cameras. Polaroid is moving into the digital age. Through a partnership with Olympus, Polaroid (stock: PRD) has developed what it calls the first "digital photo printing camera" for the U.S. market, essentially a digital camera that prints the image on standard Polaroid film. The C-211 zoom camera's key technology is a special printer co-designed by the companies. The printer allows images to be printed on standard Polaroid 500 film -- the same film sold for traditional Polaroid cameras -- which averages about $10 for a standard 10-shot pack. Like traditional cameras, the backing of the 500 film will be peeled off by the camera, printing the image in about 15 seconds, according to executives from both companies. Although Polaroid's technology was developed for the mass market, it also appeals to the IT market, particularly in the insurance and automobile fields. Polaroids and digital images alike are used by firms like the Automobile Association of America to provide visual documentation of damage to a vehicle, for example, and executives said they expect those same companies to buy the C-211. The C-211 ZOOM includes a 2.1-megapixel imager, capable of 1600 x 1200 pixel resolution. Other features of the camera include a 3X optical glass zoom and 2X digital zoom. Diamond
Rio 600 player to support WMA. Microsoft's new audio format called WMA is a direct assault on the MP3 audio format. Although WMA supposedly has smaller file sizes and better audio quality - MP3 has a very strong market lead. Diamond Multimedia will
launch its new Rio 600 digital audio player in August. It will support both MP3
and Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats. Rio 600 has built-in 32MB flash memory,
and it enables voice recording for an hour with WMA system. The storage capacity
can be increased by different recording media such as SD card, MMC, IBM Micro
Drive, and DataPlay media. Kyocera
announced 3-megapixel camera. Kyocera announced Finecam
3300 digital camera. It features 3.24 megapixel CCD and can capture images at
three quality modes: Super Fine (2,048 x 1,536), Fine (2,048 x 1,536) and Normal
(1,024 x 768). Finecam 3300 uses CompactFlash Type I/II for images storage - 8MB
card can store 4-5 images in the Super Fine mode, 8-10 images in Fine mode and
32-40 images in Normal mode. Besides, KYOCERA Finecam 3300 allows video
capturing for a maximum of 15 seconds and stores moving images in the AVI
format. The camera is equipped with a 1.5-inch TFT-LCD monitor. Intel
turns to Taiwan for third-party DDR chipsets. Saddled with a contractual clause that prohibits it from making double-data-rate SDRAM-enabled chipsets, Intel is leaning on Taiwan's IC makers to help it fend off a challenge from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. AMD, which has no such restrictions regarding its choice of memory technology, is also tapping Taiwan's independent IC makers in an effort to gain market share for its Athlon MPU. Intel
adds PC133 memory support to Pentium 4. What's funny is that most PC hardware pundits have been clocking their main memory at 140mhz or faster. The Rambus roller coaster took an unexpected turn Tuesday when Intel said it is designing a chipset using standard memory for its upcoming Pentium 4 microprocessor.Intel (stock: INTC), which previously said it would tie the proprietary Rambus (stock: RMBS) memory to the Pentium 4, confirmed it also plans to build a P4 chipset using mainstream PC133 memory. The news came as a complete surprise to the industry. Sources said top-tier OEMs were notified Monday night. Intel publicly disclosed the information Tuesday afternoon, although the chipset has been the subject of rumors for many months. Judge
likely to protect code to copy DVDs. NEW YORK--A Manhattan judge has indicated that he is likely to declare what is seemingly banal computer code to be a form of expressive content, a distinction that may help bring it First Amendment protection. But if U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rules the way he appeared to be leaning in court, it's likely to create some ripples in the DVD industry. The computer code the judge may opt to protect would make it possible for anyone to copy DVDs. Cisco
to network with homeowners. The company tomorrow will announce that it is teaming with a Southern California land developer and a small service provider to wire 13,000 new homes in Los Angeles with networking technology. Today's deal is part of Cisco's strategy for the emerging market for home networking, where dozens of companies, including 3Com, Intel, Motorola and start-ups such as 2Wire, are fighting for a piece of the action. At stake is a market that is expected to grow from revenues of $600 million in 2000 to more than $5.7 billion by 2004, according to research firm Cahners In-Stat Group. With high-speed Net connections becoming more widespread, technology firms believe consumers want all their electronic devices--PCs, stereos, kitchen appliances and security systems--to communicate and share an Internet connection. That way, homeowners can adjust the heat or air-conditioning in a room from a PC, watch a security-camera feed of their home over a Web browser, or distribute audio or video throughout the home. At the heart of Cisco's strategy is a forthcoming new home appliance, called a "residential gateway," that allows consumers to connect electronic devices such as PCs, appliances and security systems with their phone service and high-speed Internet access. Cisco has also recently partnered with a slew of companies, including appliance manufacturer Whirlpool, which is making its appliances more intelligent. Refrigerators, for example, will include Web pads for Internet access. Stepping
Process Caused Itanium Delay Says Intel. Intel is promising, however, that come the last fourth quarter of 2000, the Itanium will deliver on its promise and that the chip will be delivered in the global market on time. "A stepping process is a series of tests that Intel felt should be conducted for the Itanium chip so as not to compromise its performance and quality," explained Paolo Lopez, architecture manager for Intel's Philippines and Thailand operations. Force
Fields and 'Plasma' Shields Get Closer to Reality. Space-borne protective energy systems, like the deflector shields on the fictional starship U.S.S. Voyager, are on the drawing board of real-world scientists.These "cold plasmas" -- analogs to the sophisticated defensive grids envisioned by Star Trek's creators -- are ambient-temperature, ionized gases related to those found deep within the sun’s core. Such plasmas are capable of shielding satellites and other spacecraft; or making them invisible to radars; or both. Nor will they fry electronics or melt metal. On Earth, cold plasmas should permit rapid, room-temperature sterilization of food, medical equipment and contaminated civilian and military gear. Low-temperature plasmas could one day also make possible an entire new generation of miniature lasers and ultra-low-energy fluorescent light tubes. While scientists have known of low-temperature plasmas since at least the end of the 19th century, only within the past several years have techniques emerged to make cold plasma generation practical. 3Dfx
Upcoming Plans & Rampage Demo.
Apparently 3Dfx has demonstrated
what they called the next generation chip highly possible the 3Dfx Rampage and
they pit it against nVidia's Geforce2 DDR. This was rev 1 of gigapixels chip,
and they are currently on or have completed rev 4. They showed it running
Q3Arena, and not only was the picture far better (sharper, and not pixelated on
the edges....since it does anti-aliasing in hardware, instead of software) but
the framerate was double or slightly better. They might have said .13 technology
for their next generation of stuff (Rampage).
New
Graphics Chip Maker. The power of the Appian AGX coupled with Appian's leading extended desktop software solutions, such as HydraVision(TM) and AppianXtras, has set a new standard for multiple monitor performance and functionality. Appian last year licensed from 3Dlabs the rights to expand on 3Dlabs' latest generation Permedia core to create an appropriate multi-display solution at an appealing price/performance point. A dedicated in-house engineering team at Appian has since managed the design, layout and fabrication of the Appian AGX chip to be available on a new suite of Appian multiple monitor board-level products this fall. Appian Graphics is a provider of ``X-tended Desktop Solutions(TM)''. With years of market leading experience and knowledge, Appian has now created all the elements needed for a productive extended desktop: dual-output graphics accelerator, graphics cards, device drivers with specialized technology, and extended desktop management software. By selling and licensing these elements, Appian will be a part of just about every productive multiple monitor solution. Tech News for Tuesday July 25th 2000Compaq
to intro AMD Sledgehammer servers. Major AMD OEM customers - including Compaq -
will introduce Sledgehammer-based servers as early as Q4 this year, it has
emerged. Intergraph
Exits Hardware Business Via SGI Alliance. Intergraph finally exited the graphics workstation business it helped pioneer, agreeing to sell its product line to Silicon Graphics in exchange for a supply deal worth $100 million to SGI. Intergraph (stock: INGR), Huntsville, Ala., former vendor of workstations and workstation-class graphics solutions, agreed to sell SGI (stock: SGI) its Zx10 line of VIZual workstations and servers. Under what the companies are calling a "proposed alliance," Intergraph will also purchase $100 million worth of SGI products and services over the next three years. ATi
Radeon Review. What amazes me is that ATi had a winner here and then they decide to ship the 32MB version of the card with a slower video cpu and memory clock speed than originally announced. For a couple of days the ATi Radeon was announced as the GeForce2 killer which it proved to be in hi-resolutions but it turns out you have to purchase the 64MB Radeon in order to achieve those performance gains. Now you are talking close to $400. ATI initially planned to make the Radeon a 200/200 product, meaning that both the core and the memory would run at 200 MHz. Unfortunately ATI is having difficulty getting DDR SDRAM modules that run at 200 MHz so the final product will run the 5.5ns Hyundai DDR memory at 183 MHz instead. Since the core and memory clock of the Radeon are by default clocked at the same speed this means that the core also runs at 183 MHz. EMusic
Intros MP3 Subscription Service. EMusic.com
Inc. Dubbed EMusic Unlimited, the new offering allows consumers to download as many songs as they want from the company's catalog when they subscribe to one of the new pricing plans. Pricing starts at $9.99 a month for annual subscriptions or $19.99 when paid on a monthly basis. The company says it will avoid many of the problems that have plagued providers of MP3 music since all of its content has already been licensed. However, much of the content is from independent artists and not major labels. FBI
defends email scanner to House probe. The British government just announced that they have the ability to collect and read any public email send into their domain. Now the FBI is trying to justify the same violation of privacy. WASHINGTON--Lawmakers of both parties grilled FBI officials over the bureau's use of "Carnivore," a device designed to monitor and capture email messages in a criminal investigation. Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., called yesterday's hearings amid concerns from privacy groups about an ordinary computer filled with special software that the FBI calls a "reasonable balance" between privacy and law enforcement in an age where crime has gone online. "Carnivore raises the question as to whether existing statutes protecting citizens from 'unreasonable searches and seizures' under the Fourth Amendment appropriately balance the concerns of law enforcement and privacy," said Canady, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Constitution panel.Rep. Melvin L. Watt, D-N.C., said, "There seems to me to be a growing level of generalized concern about Big Brotherism that I suspect is being fed by the increasing electronic world." MS
To Destroy Pirated Software With Monster Truck. Microsoft is also committed to donating money to underprivileged communities worldwide to help educate children and other community members about technology and to help bridge the digital divide. Boys & Girls Club of Westminster, Calif., is one of many recipients of donations from Microsoft's anti-piracy recovery efforts. Last year the company announced that it would be donating half of its anti-piracy recoveries -- estimated to be $25 million -- to nonprofit organizations worldwide for the next five years. Tech News for Monday July 24th 2000New
software lets Palm, Microsoft share data. Peacemaker Pro from Conduits Technologies allows personal digital assistants (PDAs) running Palm, Psion and Microsoft's Pocket PC operating systems to share contact and calendar information, as well as files stored on the devices. Site
News Update. I'm still looking for some help to add news posts to the web site. Email me if you are interested. ATI
suffers Wrath of Steve Jobs. Apple yanks graphics cards from its new systems in apparent retaliation for the chip maker's loose lips.A leak from chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. that revealed details of Apple Computer Inc.'s unannounced Mac models has enraged Apple management and interrupted the promotion of ATI products by the Mac maker, sources told MacCentral. Sources said Apple executives -- including Jobs -- were livid over the incident. "Steve was beside himself," said one executive close to the issue who asked not to be named. "Steve has been so careful to hide any details -- even the smallest of details such as the number of new products to be announced -- something like this really can ruin things." Tellme
Web-over-phone service goes national. Tellme is one of several Web services that allow customers to call a toll-free number and use voice-activated commands to retrieve audio information about news, sports, local restaurants, traffic or other Web-based information over the telephone. The full-service start-up enters a market already crowded with competitors, such as BeVocal and Quack.com, which have similar aims of bringing the Web to the phone. Executives said the test process did allow the company to refine its voice-recognition systems as well as showed trends about what kinds of services people use and when. The company also added at least one new feature to its list of restaurant reviews, movie listings, airline flights and other information: providing a direct link to local taxi services. Make
Your Own DVDs And SuperVCDs. DVD players are everywhere, just as likely to be in your new PC as on top of your television set. Sales of DVD players are expected to outstrip sales of new video tape recorders (VTR) by the end of 2001. But there is one glaring problem. In its rush to create a closed standard that would ensure DVD movies could not be copied, the industry has forgotten that you and I, the consumer, just might want to be able to make our own disks someday. New
Intel 0.13 micron CPU's. EBNEWS has posted a news article with some very interesting tidbits on Intel's full scale war on AMD. The article covers the new Pentium 4 and the future direction of the next generation Intel CPU's - namely scaling the core to 0.13 micron in size. Do you remember when tech-pundits stated that we would never break the 0.20 micron barrier? Reminds me of "We will never be able to land on the moon" story. Here are some highlights: However, because AMD's new, high-speed desktop Athlons will be approaching 1.5 GHz next year, Intel has decided to shrink the Pentium III die to boost its frequency to 1.4 GHz. The new Pentium III speed grade will be among the first to use Intel's new 0.13-micron wafer processing with copper interconnect, sources said. The line will also allow Intel to perfect high-volume production of the new process technology using a mature and proven Pentium III core before transitioning to the next-generation Pentium 4. The 1.4-GHz Pentium III processor can use double-data-rate SDRAM to compete against Athlon desktops and notebooks using the same high-speed memory. But because Intel's agreement with Rambus Inc. to promote Direct Rambus DRAM contractually bars it from making its own DDR-enabled chipsets, Intel will depend on third-party vendors Acer Laboratories, Micron Technology, Silicon Integrated Systems, and Via Technologies to supply the core-logic devices. The high-performance Pentium 4 will support Direct RDRAM and will be the first to use Intel's new quad-pumped IA-32-bit bus line. Intel so far has refused to license either its IA-32 or IA-64 bus technology to third-party chipset makers, although Via has indicated it plans to develop a DDR-enabled Pentium 4 chipset for the mainstream market with or without an Intel license.
|
|
