Dell Latitude, OptiPlex Lines Get Intel Ivy Bridge Makeover

On May 31, Dell announced new Latitude and OptiPlex business laptops and desktops that speak to the consumerization of IT trend. That is to say, a demand for business-use devices that are powerful and feature rich—here, Dell has incorporated Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors—but also as well-designed and pleasant to use as the devices one buys for personal use.

Dell’s newest machines were inspired, says David Lord, Dell’s director of marketing, by desires to improve productivity, give people access to the data they need, and to make no sacrifices on the device side, while “making devices folks really want to use.”

Lord adds: “It’s pretty exciting. The 6430s is the thinnest and lightest 14-inch commercial notebook out there.”

The Dell Latitude E6430s features a 14-inch display in a 13.3-inch chassis. And while super portable at 3.75 pounds and dimensions of 13.2 by 1.06 by 8.8 inches, it’s built around a Tri-metal casing with an anodized aluminum display back, magnesium alloy wrapped corners, steel hinges, a powder-coated base, a spill-resistant keyboard and an LCD coating to protect from spills. A StrikeZone shock absorber, Fast Response Free-Fall sensor and rubber hard drive isolation are further measures to keep the realities of mobility from slowing down workers. Read More

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Enterprise Networking: Super Micro SuperStorage Server Ramps Up Storage Capacity

IT and business initiatives are changing the face of storage in the enterprise. The demands of big data, compliance, archiving and continuity are driving enterprises to rethink storage systems. Super Micro aims to meet that demand with an affordable storage server, which incorporates performance features with redundancy and room for 12 serial-attached SCSI version 2 (SAS-2) or Serial ATA version 3 (SATA3) drives. The 2U device is easy to service, thanks to a removable top panel. Several expansion slots are available as well as a port to add JBOD, or just a bunch of drives, storage capacity to the unit. Integrated sensors and monitoring capabilities allow proactive management and protection from unannounced failures. Then there are 920-watt redundant power supplies and passive cooling routes to further reduce downtime. Support for the latest Intel Xeon E5-2600 series CPUs eliminates performance bottlenecks, while RAM capacity tops out at 768GB, which helps with future expansion. Removable drive bays with support for hot-swap further augment redundancy, as does multiple levels of RAID support. The Super Micro SuperStorage Server SSG-6027R-E1R12N is available in any color you want, as long as it's black.  Read More

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Intel's New Ivy Bridge Chips Include Some for Ultrabooks

 Intel a month ago launched the first of its Ivy Bridge processors, quad-core chips aimed at the desktop market. Now the giant chip maker is unveiling a new batch of its third-generation Core processors, including several aimed at the Ultrabook space.

The new dual-core chips, announced May 31, include four tagged as Mobile Ultra processors that are designed for Ultrabooks, the extremely thin and light notebooks that Intel executives have championed for about a year. The systems are designed to offer the productivity capabilities of traditional laptops with many of the features—including long battery life, instant-on and always-connected capabilities, and for some models touch-screens—that are found in the popular tablets.

Almost two dozen Ultrabooks already are on the market, powered by the Sandy Bridge Core processors that were released last year. However, Intel officials see the new crop of systems that are on the horizon and will be based on the Ivy Bridge chips as the ones that will get the market rolling. Read More

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Windows 8 Power Struggle: Metro vs Desktop

We've been looking forward to Windows 8's Consumer Preview for months. This, after all, is Microsoft's big chance to show what they've been working on and unveiling bit by bit for the past year; a chance to evaluate the sum total of changes and advancements baked into the next-generation operating system. We'll discuss some of the features of Metro and Desktop (aka Classic) separately, but our overall focus will be on how the two environments interact with each other.
 

Metro, Microsoft's new UI, is bold, a dramatic departure from anything the company has previously done in the desktop/laptop space, and absolutely great. It's tangible proof that Redmond really can design and build its own unique products and experiences. Metro's design heavily emphasizes text and uses brightly-colored background tiles as a means of differentiating programs. It uses very little chrome (in this context, the term "chrome" refers to the use of buttons and icons to represent specific functions). Minimize, Maximize, the X "close window" button and the task bar itself are all examples of chrome. Read More

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iBUYPOWER Erebus GT Gaming System Review

So you’re in the market for a smoking fast system, and you have your heart set on a custom build. You can easily drop upwards of three (or four or five) grand on a completely tricked-out enthusiast-class rig that will leave your gamer friends standing in puddles of drool. If you’re on a stricter budget, you can also opt for something in the mainstream range that’s still pretty nice, yet costs closer to $1000-$1500; or, you can look for a sweet spot between the two, where shaking a little more out of the piggy bank gets you a system with all the performance you could ask for in a package that’s still guaranteed to elicit wolf whistles from your friends.

iBUYPOWER has a system for you it thinks hit the sweet spot for a high-end gaming PC, and it’s called the Erebus GT.

With the Erebus GT, iBUYPOWER set out to make a slightly smaller and less expensive line of systems to complement its Erebus custom gaming series, which is now renamed the Erebus XL series. There are actually three Erebus GTs in the new line, with configurations based on the AMD FX platform starting as low as $899, but the one iBUYPOWER sent us to test is an Intel Sandy Bridge-based version that costs $2499 (as configured). Read More

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Toshiba Excite 10 LE: The World's Thinnest 10" Tablet

Toshiba is claiming to have the world's thinnest 10-inch tablet with its Excite 10 LE. This Android 4.0-powered tablet is indeed thin and lightweight, measuring 0.3 inches thick and weighing about 1.18 pounds. In addition to its thin design, the Excite 10 LE also offers a number of ports and expansion slots. With its size, range of IO ports, and good-looking magnesium alloy surface finish, the Excite 10 LE is certainly eye catching.

Although thin and light are definitely key features for any tablet, we also demand performance. Toshiba understands this, and has included a 1.2 GHz Dual-Core Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 processor as well as 1GB of DDR2 RAM in this tablet. The Excite 10 LE is available in 16GB and 32GB model and both models are available with Android 3.2 Honeycomb or with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. In this review, we'll take a look at the 16GB Excite 10 LE with Android 4.0 which has a suggested retail price of $529.99. The 32GB model with either version of Android will set you back an additional $70. Read More

 

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Intel Core i7-3720QM Ivy Bridge Mobile Review

You might say Intel has been absolutely killing it as of late.  Whether you consider their recent earnings announcement beating Wall Street's expectations, the Ultrabook craze, their re-entrance into the handset arena with their Medfield platform, or the proliferation of their 2nd generation Core Sandy Bridge-based processors in the market; it's perfectly clear the company is in an execution groove that will fuel both their own growth as well as industry growth for some time to come.  In short, Intel has been a design execution machine recently and when you put that into perspective with their world-class semiconductor manufacturing prowess, the company packs a seriously competitive punch.

As if that weren't enough, the company is obviously champing at the bit for the launch of their 3rd generation Core series processors known by the code name Ivy Bridge.  From full-on leaks of NDA classified information and performance results, to the official, blessed unveiling of Intel's companion 7 Series chipset platform, it's as if we've been hearing about Ivy Bridge for what seems like an eternity, at least in terms of tech years. Incidentally, the Ivy Bridge logo above was created by the Ivy Bridge design team; apparently they were a little fired-up too.  In any event, today is the day that Intel's long rumored and hyped Ivy Bridge 3rd Generation Core processors get real and we've got the full lowdown for you. Read More

AMD Trinity A10-4600M Processor Review

We won't burn up too much of your bandwidth setting the stage here.  AMD's second-generation Bulldozer core processor microarchitecture, codenamed Piledriver, has made headlines at HotHardware many times in the past few months, including our CES sneak peek of the chip that AMD is launching today for the mobile market, codenamed Trinity.  What this launch is all about is AMD's answer to Intel's Ivy Bridge-based Core series processors for notebooks.  It's that straightforward, though we'll start by level-setting expectations based on how both companies and their respective architectures approach computing workloads.

There's little debate that Intel's strength lies in their base x86 CPU architecture, which has held a significant advantage over AMD for several generations of product now, both in desktop and mobile flavors.  AMD has been left to compete on cost more than anything else (and in some recent products, low power) and when you consider Intel's clear advantage in leading-edge silicon manufacturing process, that's a thin line to walk. Read More

Cisco Cius sees us no more

Cisco is pulling back from its Cius tablet computer and all but abandoning it.

OJ Winge, the SVP of TelePresence Technology at Cisco, has blogged that the Android-powered Cius is heading towards the exit because employees of its business customers are bringing their own, consumer-style, devices to the office; iPad tablets and the like.

He writes:
Cisco will no longer invest in the Cisco Cius tablet form factor, and no further enhancements will be made to the current Cius endpoint beyond what’s available today. However, as we evaluate the market further, we will continue to offer Cius in a limited fashion to customers with specific needs or use cases.

Consumers can't buy Cius tablets in the places they buy their tablets as Cisco has no substantial Cius presence in the popular entail/etail channels.

Cius was conceived of as a collaboration device for business users, not as a content consumption device for consumers. As such business users don't want it.

Cisco's interest in tablets is in being "committed to delivering a new collaborative workspace that meets our customer’s needs and empowers users to work their way—anytime, anywhere and on any device." The Cius tablet, an endpoint, is too restrictive for users. Read More

Is Open Source Hardware IT's Next Big Thing?

Those of us with gray hair remember when mainstream companies viewed open source software with extreme skepticism--that is, until it became apparent that the Internet backbone was running reliably on OSS. Now attention is turning to open source hardware.
Open source hardware? Really?
Surely this movement is for hobbyists only, right? You don't want to fork out $50 for a USB battery charger, so you fork out $20 for the kit and work on it with your buddies over the weekend. Read More

Dell Delivers Desktop-as-a-Service

Dell will be at Citrix Systems' Synergy user group conference in San Francisco this week, talking about its ability to deliver virtual desktops in partnership with VMware and Citrix Systems. No surprises there. More surprising, however, is its partnership with a younger and smaller company, Desktone.

Desktone provides virtual desktops through a cloud-based, desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) platform, and will work with both Citrix and VMware virtual machines. As such, it is "hypervisor agnostic," said Desktone CEO Peter McKay in an interview.

Dell's Desktone-based service, Dell Simplified DaaS has been available to a handful of customers for a month, and is now available to all, Dell announced Monday.

Desktone is different from Citrix XenDesktop or VMware View, in that it provides virtual desktops from servers in an external data center, giving an IT department a portal-based management console through which it may manage the desktops that company employees create. Read More

Lenovo launches 2 new desktop PCs in India; prices start at Rs 21,250

New Delhi: Lenovo India announced two new additions to its desktop lineup in India – IdeaCentre H430 and IdeaCentre H520s. These desktops are claimed to offer a host of entertainment features at a space-saving design and an affordable pricing.

The Lenovo H520s desktop PC is said to be 2 times smaller than a standard desktop PC, which combines a slim design with the performance of a 2nd/ 3rd generation Intel Core™ i7 processor. It is priced at Rs 24,990 (taxes extra).

The Lenovo H430 desktop PC is said to offer a multitude of entertainment feature. It has the 2nd/3rd Generation Intel Core i processor with Turbo Boost. The Lenovo H430 is available for Rs 21,250 (taxes extra).

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Android mini computer selling for just $74

Enthusiasts of embedded computing seem to be spoiled for choices nowadays. A Chinese-made computer that's slightly larger than a typical thumb drive can now be purchased online for just $74.

The MK802 is similar to the Cotton Candy computer-on-a-stick. Both are powered by ARM processors and support Android or other ARM-compatible Linux operating systems. It comes with a Mali 400 GPU that enables it to output 1080p video through HDMI.

Despite its small size (it weighs just about 7 ounces), the MK802 has a microSD card slot to add to its built-in 4GB flash storage, together with a full-size USB port and a micro-USB version. Wi-Fi is also supported. Read More

New From HP: Stylish Ultrabooks and a Wafer-Thin 'Sleekbook'

HP announced a slew of refreshed and new HP laptops on Tuesday that should be shipping to retailers this summer. Among the newcomers are several HP Envy models and a business-oriented Ultrabook.

Spectre XT as an "ultra-stylish" extension of the HP Spectre line, which already looks pretty sleek thanks to its glass top. The XT will have an all-metal chassis (like similar premium Ultrabooks) and a slim bezel (like the Envy 14 Spectre) to pack a larger display in its small 13.3-inch footprint.

The XT is thinner and lighter than the Envy 14 Spectre: It measures 0.57 inch thick and weighs 3.07 pounds, whereas the Envy 14 Spectre comes in at 0.9 inch thick and 4 pounds. A backlit keyboard, a 128GB solid-state drive, and a battery-life rating of 7 hours round out this premium Ultrabook's features. Read More

The Greatest PC Mysteries--Solved!

PC owners know that every computer has a unique assortment of components, applications and peripherals. Nevertheless, certain things--including a host of common PC problems and mysteries--are part of the shared experience of computer ownership. The editors at PCWorld have seen and solved hundreds of PC mysteries, ranging from balky printers to diffident video players to persnickety file attachments. Most of the answers to these tech questions are simple and straightforward, so we've taken the liberty of compiling some of the most frequently encountered PC mysteries into a single list that we'll update regularly. Following each question we provide a short response that summarizes what we know. For a more detailed explanation and some helpful tips, click the links in each answer. Read More

A New Home for Computer Screens: The Face

Employees at eyeglasses designer Michael Pachleitner Group have no reason to consult desktop computers, tablets or old-fashioned paper binders to find items in their 22,000 square-foot warehouse. The information is right in front of their faces.

The Austrian company recently outfitted warehouse workers with a head-mounted device that displays digital information on a clear lens over one of the eyes. The lens gives visual directions through a Wi-Fi connection to the 1.4 million items stored in the vast warehouse. It also confirms they made the right pick, and frees up their hands.

By July, the company's six warehouse pickers will be wearing the device all day, cutting down on picking errors by an estimated 60%, said Chief Financial Officer Neil Lambert. "We were skeptical in the beginning" about the device, which reminded him of military gadgets seen in movies. "It was a nice surprise to see that it works." Read More

AMD 990FX Mobo Round-Up: Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte

In preparation for the impending arrival of its Bulldozer-based FX-series of processors, AMD recently released their 9-Series chipsets. The AMD 9-Series currently consists of three products, the 970, the 990X, and the flagship 990FX chipsets.

At their core, all of the current AMD 9-Series chipsets are similar, and offer support for socket AM3 and AM3+ processors, DDR3 memory, PCIe 2.0 (with a varying number of lanes), and SATA III (6Gb/s). The chipsets differ in their support for AMD CrossFireX technology, however, due to a different number of PCI Express lanes available on each. The flagship 990FX supports up to four graphics cards, the 990X two cards, and the 970 only a single card. We should point out that some motherboards based on the AMD 990FX chipset will get official support for NVIDIA’s SLI technology as well, so those enthusiasts chomping at the bit for an 8-Core Bulldozer chip can enjoy some multi-GPU action with their graphics vendor of choice.

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AMD Trinity A10-4600M Processor Review

We won't burn up too much of your bandwidth setting the stage here.  AMD's second-generation Bulldozer core processor microarchitecture, codenamed Piledriver, has made headlines at HotHardware many times in the past few months, including our CES sneak peek of the chip that AMD is launching today for the mobile market, codenamed Trinity.  What this launch is all about is AMD's answer to Intel's Ivy Bridge-based Core series processors for notebooks.  It's that straightforward, though we'll start by level-setting expectations based on how both companies and their respective architectures approach computing workloads.

There's little debate that Intel's strength lies in their base x86 CPU architecture, which has held a significant advantage over AMD for several generations of product now, both in desktop and mobile flavors.  AMD has been left to compete on cost more than anything else (and in some recent products, low power) and when you consider Intel's clear advantage in leading-edge silicon manufacturing process, that's a thin line to walk.  Read More

Tablet Face-Off: Budget Models From Acer and Asus vs. Apple's iPad 2

It appears that $400 or less marks the new sweet spot for 10-inch-class tablets. First Apple reduced its iPad 2 to that price, and now we have a pair of Android tablets, the Acer Iconia Tab A200 and the Asus Transformer Pad TF300, coming in at $350 and $380, respectively. If you have four C-bills and want a 10-inch tablet, which of these represents the best deal? The answer may surprise you.

Or maybe not. We’ve already established that, for some, an Apple iPad 2 may be enough tablet and represent the better buy over the newer third-generation iPad. But now we have two new Android models, each from large PC manufacturers, and each competing for the same market that Apple’s targeting with its iPad 2.

Of the three, the Asus Transformer Pad excels in some of the PCWorld Labs’ tests, and stumbles slightly in others. Even so, its overall performance score puts it just a few points behind the iPad 2. Acer’s Iconia Tab A200, clearly the most valued-priced model of the three, makes some sacrifices that aren’t worth what you save. Read More

New DDR4 Memory to Boost Tablet, Server Performance

The DDR4 memory standard, which the Joint Electronic Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) expects to OK this summer, represents a doubling of performance over its predecessor and a reduction in power use by 20% to 40% based on a maximum 1.2 volts of power use.

"It's a fantastic product," said Mike Howard, an analyst with market research firm IHS iSuppli. "Increasing the amount of memory and the bandwidth of that memory is going to have huge implications."

DDR4's significant reduction in power needs means that relatively low-priced DDR memory will, for the first time, be used in mobile products such as ultrabooks and tablets, according to Howard.

Today, mobile devices use low-power DDR (LPDDR) memory, the current iteration of which uses 1.2v of power. The next generation of mobile memory, LPDDR3, will further reduce that power consumption (probably by 35% to 40%), but it will likely cost 40% more than DDR4 memory, said Howard. (LPDDR memory is more expensive to manufacture.) Read More

Ink-flation: Printer Cartridge Prices Are Climbing Quickly

If you get the feeling that the cost of replacing the ink cartridges on your inkjet printer is getting out of hand, your impression may be more accurate than you realize. Between 2009 and today, the rate of inflation has increased by 7 percent. During that same period, the cost per page of some vendors' inks has risen by anywhere from 4 percent to 30 percent. Yes, 30 percent.
We review 50 or more printers per year, and we price the cartridges for every one of them. About 8 months ago, I began noticing that ink cartridge prices for some models were going up--sometimes sharply. When I dug deeper, I also saw that the price increases seemed to be selective: Some inks went up; others stayed the same; and one even dipped slightly. The biggest hikes I observed came from Lexmark and Kodak, but Epson's color ink costs have been rising as well. Meanwhile, HP seems to be nudging ink costs upward in its newer models.

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How to Convert an Old PC into a Modern Server

You could e-recycle it--hand it off to a responsible company that will dismantle it and recycle the parts--but what do you gain from that aside from feeling good about being environmentally responsible? Allow us to suggest another solution: Repurpose the old hulk as a local server. You can use it as a repository for automatic PC backups, or set it up as a file server that you and your employees can access while you're on the road. Those are just two of the roles that an older PC can perform that are of far more benefit to your business than having the machine collect dust or head for the dump.

Best of all, the software--FreeNAS--that will power this machine is exactly what its name describes: a free operating system for network-attached storage. And side from being free, FreeNAS is easy to install, configure, and run. You'll find everything you need to know in this guide. Read More

RAID Made Easy

What is RAID, why do you need it, and what are all those mode numbers that are constantly bandied about? RAID stands for "Redundant Array of Independent Disks" or "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks," depending on who you talk to. Note that the word array is included in the acronym, so saying "RAID array," as a lot of people do, is redundant.
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Back when hard drives were less capacious and more expensive, RAID was created to combine multiple, less-expensive drives into a single, higher-capacity and/or faster volume. On top of that, it was designed to facilitate redundancy, also known as fault tolerance or failover protection, so that the array and its data remain usable when a drive fails. You'll often hear about 1-disk or 2-disk redundancy, which refers to the number of drives that can fail while the array remains viable. Read More

Seagate GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage 500GB

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite hard drive takes the shackles off your tablet, freeing it to connect to a greater amount of storage capacity--without having to go through any pesky wires. But although the hardware implementation is adequate, the software app struggles. A lot. At launch, Seagate is offering a messy, limited app for iPad and iPhone; an Android app equivalent is still in the works, so for now Android users must access the hard drive's contents using a comparatively crude Web-browser interface (admittedly, one not unlike the browser interface for standard network-attached drives). Read More

Intel Posts Fix for Bug That Crashes SSD 320 Drives

The firmware update addresses the Bad Context 13x Error, a bug in which power losses caused Intel's SSD 320 drives to crash. When rebooting, the bug also prevented the drive from being accessed and resulted in the system BIOS reporting a SSD 320 unit as having only 8MB of storage capacity.

Users can download the firmware update for the affected drives from Intel's website, a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail. Instructions to install the firmware are in a Read Me file. Read  More

Lenovo Launches Fleet of New Ivy Bridge ThinkPads and IdeaPads

Lenovo Tuesday officially announced its new portfolio of business-friendly ThinkPad laptops, IdeaPad Ultrabooks, and IdeaPad multimedia laptops. Come June, it'll be raining Lenovo ThinkPads and IdeaPads.

We got a peek at many of these refreshed laptops--except for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon--earlier this year at CES, but now Lenovo has revealed pricing and other details.

The new line has been refreshed not just to include the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors, but with other significant improvements as well. For example, the new ThinkPad X, T, and L series laptops will feature optional HD+ (1600 by 900 pixel resolution) displays. The new multimedia IdeaPad Y series laptops will offer the latest Nvidia Kepler graphics. And the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook has been bumped up in screen size from 13 inches to 14 inches, with a new 1600 by 900 pixel resolution. Read More

Study: Phone co customer satisfaction evens out

NEW YORK (AP) — Improvements in customer satisfaction at Sprint Nextel Corp. and AT&T Inc. have narrowed differences among the Big 4 wireless carriers to the point that they're basically even in terms of pleasing their subscribers, according to a study released Tuesday.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index puts Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless within two points of each other on a 100-point scale of customer satisfaction.

That's the smallest spread since the survey started looking at all four companies in 2005. It's also within the margin of error at plus or minus three points.

Last year, AT&T clearly trailed the pack, while Sprint and Verizon led. That was a surprising development for Sprint, which was last as recently as four years ago. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has made improvement in customer service central to his tenure. Read More

Ahead of Facebook IPO, poll finds user distrust

Facebook's public offering will be the largest and perhaps most highly anticipated Internet deal in history. But faced with great expectations, Facebook is staring down some unnerving obstacles when it comes to key areas of monetization and growth: public distrust and display advertising apathy.

According to a new AP-CNBC poll, 57% of Facebook users say they never click ads or other sponsored content when they use the site, with another 26% saying they hardly ever engage in such activity.

While the company makes money, in part, simply by displaying sponsored content, user clicks are a critical part of an advertiser's calculus when gauging how effective those ads are and how much they're willing to pay for them. In the first quarter, Facebook generated 82% of its $1.06 billion in revenue from advertising sales. In the company's online IPO pitch to retail investors, CFO David Ebersman says the company is working to make ads "more relevant, more social, and more engaging" as it looks to grow. Read More

Yahoo's Scott Thompson gets no severance

Yahoo began closing ranks behind its abruptly reshuffled leadership team on Monday, but stayed mum on how it would proceed after firing its second CEO in the past eight months.

The Sunnyvale Internet giant, which fired CEO Scott Thompson on Sunday after he was revealed to have falsely claimed he earned a computer science degree, filed formal notice of the separation Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing revealed that Thompson, who was earning an annual salary of $1 million, will not receive severance pay for his five months at the helm of the 12,000-person company. But he will receive cash and stock given him to compensate for money he gave up this year when he left eBay, where he was in charge of the PayPal division.

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802.11 wireless development through the ages

Wireless technology has shown rapid development over the last 15 years. With that in mind we look at the progression of the 802.11 protocol from the original legacy mode, through to the current “ac” mode.

802.11 legacy

The original 802.11 protocol, released in June 1997, is now known as legacy mode.

It ran on the Industrial Scientific Medical frequency (ISM) band at 2.4GHz, and employed techniques such as frequency hopping and direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS).

Infra-red (IR) signals for data transfer were also part of the standard, however these had no actual implementations.  Continue Reading

Intel To Insure Apple 'Can't Ignore,' Its Chips For iPad, iPhone, CEO Says

Intel outlined its plan to catch up in the smartphone processor business at its annual investor day in Santa Clara, California, Thursday: crush competitors with the weight of its multi-billion-dollar fabs and the thousands of developers it can throw at the problem of tuning mobile software to run on its processors.

Intel Positioning Itself For 'Golden Age,' CEO Says; Rivals Face 'Big Uphill Fight' In Tablets Brian Caulfield Brian Caulfield Forbes

The goal: keep the attention of key customers such as Apple as smartphones, tablets, and personal computing devices converge. Apple relies on Intel processors for its notebook and desktop computers, and ARM-based designs for its booming smartphone and tablet products — leading some to fret that Apple could one day switch to ARM-based chips for the Mac. Read More

Micron in Talks to Acquire Elpida

Micron Technology Inc. said Thursday it is in talks with the trustees of failed Elpida Memory Inc. to acquire the Japanese memory-chip maker, in a move that would allow the U.S. company to grow its portfolio of memory products and become more competitive against rivals in South Korea and Taiwan.

Micron said in a statement it plans to become Elpida's financial sponsor and acquire Elpida's entire business as part of reorganization proceedings approved by the Tokyo District Court. Read More

Myspace settles FTC privacy investigation

Myspace, the once-mighty social network ultimately toppled by Facebook, settled a privacy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to submit to privacy audits over the next 20 years.

The settlement, over charges that Myspace misrepresented its privacy policies to users, is similar to deals the FTC struck previously with Facebook and Google.

The FTC said Tuesday that despite telling users it would not share personally identifiable information with others, Myspace provided users' "Friend ID" numbers to advertisers. That allowed advertisers to find users' publicly available personal information, often including full names, and could even lead advertisers to discover users' Web-browsing activity.  Continue Reading

When will Apple patch the Lion flaw that stores passwords in clear text?

An Apple developer enabled a debug log file in OS X 10.7.3 that stores user passwords in clear-text — and a user posted the flaw on Apple’s Support Communities over three months ago.

Lion flaw exposes user's passwords in clear text - Jason O'Grady

There’s a major security bug in the currently shipping version of OS X Lion (10.7.3). ZDNET’s own Emil Protalinski and Ed Bott exposed it after it was first reported by security researcher David Emery on the Cryptome mailing list.

Users of Apple’s FileVault encryption that upgraded from Snow Leopard to OS X Lion update 10.7.3 (build 11D50) were apparently victimized by a piece of errant code that turned on a system-wide debug log file containing the login passwords of every user that logged in since the update was applied  Read More

Hedge Fund Intensifies Attack on Yahoo Amid Storm Over Padded Résumés

Third Point has intensified its assault against Yahoo.
On Friday, the hedge fund, which is the middle of a contentious proxy battle with Yahoo, called for the dismissal of the technology company’s chief executive, Scott Thompson, after revealing that he had inaccurately stated his credentials.
Mr. Thompson had previously claimed to have earned degrees in both accounting and computer science from Stonehill College. After prodding by Third Point, Yahoo conceded that Mr. Thompson had only an accounting degree, calling it an “inadvertent error.”     Read More

Oracle Judge Tells Jury to Keep Trying Amid ‘Possible’ Deadlock

A juror in Oracle Inc. (ORCL)’s copyright- infringement trial against Google Inc. (GOOG) asked the judge for guidance about not being able to reach a unanimous verdict, raising the possibility the panel is deadlocked.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, presiding over the trial in San Francisco, sent the 12-member jury home yesterday with orders to return today to “start fresh.” He proposed to Oracle and Google lawyers, without the jury present, that they accept a partial verdict if there are questions the panel agrees on, and said the trial should move into the next phase dealing with patent-infringement claims.

While the juror didn’t say in the note, which came on the third day of deliberations, the panel was deadlocked, Alsup told lawyers “it’s possible” that is “what’s going on.”

The panel is weighing whether Google infringed parts of Oracle’s Java programming language that the search engine provider used to develop the Android operating system for smartphones, now running on 300 million devices.

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Microsoft Windows 8-Based PCs and Tablets to Playback Dolby Digital Plus Content.

Dolby Laboratories of Thursday said that Microsoft Corp. will incorporate Dolby decoding and encoding technologies for online and file-based content into all versions of Windows 8. The pact ensures the presence of Dolby Digital format on Windows ecosystem beyond Blu-ray or DVD and creates the opportunity to bring a differentiated audio experience to Windows-based PCs and tablets. What should be noted is that PC makers will be forced to pay for DD support.

"With the incredible growth of online download and streaming media, particularly for video content, this agreement ensures a great audio experience for those consumers who wish to download or stream TV and movies containing Dolby Digital Plus. Additionally, all of their existing and future home videos recorded with Dolby Digital Plus audio will work great on Windows 8 right out of the box," said Tami Reller, chief financial officer and chief marketing officer for Windows and Windows Live at Microsoft.

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