Archive for April, 2007
“Your Xbox LIVE® friends list is about to get a whole lot bigger. Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Windows Live™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft® Windows®-based PCs and Windows Mobile®-powered devices. With this update to Xbox 360, friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts…” (Read full article here)
April 9th, 2007
“Graduate students heading to Ottawa’s Carleton University this fall are slated to receive an education of a different sort - learning their rights when it comes to protecting ideas and work from possible theft. The Carleton Graduate Students’ Association is spearheading an initiative to educate some 3,300 grad students on how to safeguard their intellectual property while ensuring they’re being properly recognized for their work…” (Read full article here)
April 9th, 2007
“Apple® today announced that the 100 millionth iPod® has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle. Along with iTunes® and the iTunes online music store, the iPod has transformed how tens of millions of music lovers acquire, manage and listen to their music…” (Read full article here)
April 9th, 2007
“A 52-km cable was put in place along the sea floor of California’s Monterey Bay, marking an important step in the construction of a deep-sea observatory off the United State’s continent. The cable will power scientific instruments, video cameras and robots 3,000 feet (900 meters) below the ocean surface. It will also relay data to land, which will be shared by scientists and engineers around the world, said the National Science Foundation (NSF) on Friday. The Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) observatory, when completed later this year, could allow scientists to monitor and control instruments 24 hours a day and have an unprecedented view of how environmental conditions in the deep sea change over time…” (Read full article here)
April 8th, 2007
“Corel Software, who purchased InterVideo last August, have announced that they have issued a mandatory update for all WinDVD owners who wish to continue to use the software to view Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. The update is being issued to address the recent cracks that have extracted volume and title keys from AACS-protected Blu-ray and HD DVD titles. “Our decision stems from recent reports that hackers have illegally obtained certain software licensing keys and have used them to duplicate copyrighted content without prior authorization,” a Corel spokesperson explained in a press release…” (Read full article here)
April 8th, 2007
“Tom’s Hardware Guide and its parent company TG Publishing have been sold to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed price. The deal will close later this month, said Omid Rahmat, CEO of Tom’s Publishing, in a letter to the Inquirer. The rumored price, however, is $15-$20 million. Tom’s Hardware is an established news site for tech professionals that most geeks have encountered at least once - the network of sites (including versions in different countries - a total of 12 editions worldwide) reports 50M monthly pageviews and 5M unique monthly visitors…” (Read full article here)
April 8th, 2007
“Laser TV will be here within a year to best plasma and LCD picture quality. Plasma and LCD represent the two main technologies of choice for today’s high definition televisions, but by this time next year a third technology called laser TV will emerge in hopes of bringing the best picture quality yet. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Novalux Inc. is one of the main developers of the upcoming laser TV technology, and promises that its products will deliver appreciable benefits over plasma, LCD and CRT televisions. When compared to plasma and LCD, laser TV technology boasts half the production cost, double the color range, and three-quarters less power consumption…” (Read full article here)
April 7th, 2007
“For years we’ve tracked how Canadian cable providers are at the forefront of using caps and traffic throttling to avoid having to invest in infrastructure upgrades. Shaw was one of the first providers to throttle the entire BitTorrent application, and fellow cable operator Rogers has long been playing traffic shaping cat and mouse with “bandwidth hogs.” Techdirt points to a report by Michael Geist that explores how all encrypted traffic over the Rogers network suffers because of their efforts to stop BitTorrent file traders…” (Read full article here)
April 7th, 2007
“Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) has begun shipping two 3 GHz versions of its dual-core Opteron chip to server vendors, continuing a battle over multicore processing power with Intel Corp., the company said Wednesday. AMD plans to begin full-volume shipments by early May of the new Opteron 2222 SE chip for two-processor servers and the 8222 SE chip for eight-processor servers, said Patrick Patla, director of Opteron marketing for the company. The new chips are similar to AMD’s previous top-shelf, dual-core chip, but run as fast as 3 GHz instead of 2.8 GHz for customers with general-purpose servers and workstations who need the extra speed to handle larger databases or more complex technical computing tasks…” (Read full article here)
April 6th, 2007
“US computer and printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard has unveiled plans it hopes will make it a major force in the global video and online gaming market. HP bought specialist gaming computer firm VoodooPC at the end of last year, and said it would now expand the hardware the firm was able to offer. Ideas on the drawing board are a curved computer screen and a handheld device that let users play on the move. The global computer gaming business is worth some $35bn (£18bn) a year…” (Read full article here)
April 6th, 2007
“VeriSign on Thursday said it that it will increase the fees it charges for Internet domains ending in .com or .net. Starting October 15, VeriSign will charge $6.42 for .com domains and $3.85 for .net domains, it said in a statement. The fees are charged to domain registrars such as GoDaddy and Tucows, which typically handle domain registration for customers. The new prices represent a 7 percent price increase for .com domains, for which VeriSign currently charges $6, and a 10 percent rise for .net domains, which cost $3.50…” (Read full article here)
April 6th, 2007
“Google has just released a significant update to Google Maps which allows anyone to, in a sense, create their own maps “mashups” - or what they call “My Maps”. Google was kind enough to demo the new features to me on Wednesday. Look at Google Maps for a new tab on the left which lets you view and create “My Maps”. The user interface for creating content is point and click and uses many of the same approaches and functionality as seen in Google Earth. For example, you can create placemarks, paths, or shapes. For descriptions, you can even use a familiar rich text formatting mode to dress up your descriptions, or use HTML if you prefer. The end result of this new update is that Google Maps and Google Earth are coming closer together in many respects…” (Read full article here)
April 5th, 2007
“The Thai government has banned access to the YouTube video-uploading website after it broadcast material critical of the country’s king. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said the site was banned after a 44-second film showing graffiti over the king’s face was aired. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 79, is revered and it is forbidden to insult him. The minister said a ban came after the Thai government asked YouTube’s owner Google to remove it and they declined. The contentious film also shows feet being placed over the king’s face - an offensive act to Thais, who consider feet dirty…” (Read full article here)
April 5th, 2007
“Apple on Wednesday updated its desktop Mac Pro computers adding two new 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, bringing 8-core processing to the Mac. The new machines can run the 3.0GHz Intel Xeon processors and are available as build to order options. Using two “Clovertown” 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5300 series processors, the 8-core Mac Pro comes with 8MB of L2 cache per processor (16MB total), 667MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMM memory, eight FB-DIMM slots on two memory riser cards (four slots per card) supporting up to 16GB of main memory and 1.33GHz, 64-bit dual independent frontside buses…” (Read full article here)
April 4th, 2007
“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says 15 British naval personnel captured in the Gulf will be freed. He repeated allegations that the British sailors and marines “invaded” Iranian waters, but said they would be freed as a “gift” to Britain. He made the announcement at a news conference, in which he also awarded medals to the commanders who captured the British personnel in the Gulf…” (Read full article here)
April 4th, 2007
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