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Intel recently published a whitepaper with some amusing 32nm facts that we are reproducing here for you. If you have ever wondered how small the logic inside these chips really is in 'measurable' terms, here are some random facts to give you some perspective:
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Along with the licensing arrangement, it's said that Amazon will pay Microsoft a chunk of money, but the companies didn't say how much. In fact, the motive behind the deal itself is undisclosed. Some suggest Amazon agreed to the terms to avoid a patent-infringement suit from Microsoft. Other companies that use Linux have signed patent deals, and Redmond has repeatedly claimed the software violates some of its patents.
About a year ago, Microsoft sued TomTom over eight patents -- including three related to the GPS-maker's implementation of the Linux kernel. ITIC principal Laura DiDio noted, "It makes more sense for companies to make nice and do a cross-licensing agreement -- Microsoft has come to realize that legal action is often more costly than it is worth."
Microsoft has entered more than 600 licensing agreements since the company launched its IP licensing program in December 2003.
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ust a quick heads up for those who signed up to run the Release Candidate (build 7100) version of Windows 7 and never upgraded to the final code: get going with that or prepared to be annoyed. Starting this Monday, March 1st, besides showing an expiration notification on the taskbar, your system will start to shut down every two hours and any unsaved work will be lost in the process.
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In a statement yesterday, Superintendant Dr. Christopher McGinley confirmed that the laptops indeed have a "security feature" to track missing systems. The "feature" can take a "still image of the operator and the operator's screen," but McGinley said it has been deactivated, and will not be reactivated without express written notification. He also insisted that the feature has only been used to locate lost, stolen or missing laptops.
Students involved in the suit have contacted Gizmodo with details about the situation. It's said that the green lights next to the kids' laptops often turns on, suggesting it's in use, but the district claims it's just a glitch. One student questioned a school IT guy about the light, who said it was occurring because "people logged out when an application using the camera was on." The employee also admitted that the school could in fact look through the webcam, but it would violate law.
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cer last week announced its Aspire One 532G netbook as the first to carry Nvidia's forthcoming Ion 2, but few details have been revealed about the next-gen graphics chip. Some folks at NetbookNews recently got their hands on the Aspire One 532G at Mobile World Congress, and they managed to sneak in a 3DMark 03 graphics benchmark.
While the results aren't conclusive, the Ion 2 actually performed worse than the original. The Aspire One 532G scored 3,049 3DMarks, which compares to 3,593 3DMarks for the Ion LE-equipped Samsung N510. Netbook Choice speculates that this may show issues Nvidia has faced with Intel's Pine Trail architecture.
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enovo has announced it will ship six new Think-branded business-minded computers
next month. The company flaunts its ThinkPad X201 as the industry's fastest ultraportable laptop, the X201s as the thinnest and lightest in its product line, the X201t is the "smart tablet for business users," and the W701 and W701ds mobile workstations are the most powerful ThinkPads.
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Turns out the alleged hacker is a Chinese "freelance security consultant in his 30s" who had published extracts of his IE6 exploit code as a work in progress. Although this man did not launch any attacks himself, according to The Financial Times, Chinese officials have "special access" to his work and are believed to have picked up the code.
The spyware's launch was recently traced to computers at Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, the first of which counts former government cyber security experts among its staff. Both institutions have denied involvement in the attacks, of course. The latest findings don't give a definite answer as to who was behind the attacks, but it might put some extra pressure on China to cooperate with the ongoing investigations.
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n the past three years we've seen a number of new smartphone operating systems burst onto the scene. From Apple's wildly successful iPhone OS, to Google's increasingly popular Android and Palm's praised yet still floundering WebOS -- to name a few. Microsoft is no stranger to the market either, but just recently the company took a radical departure from its previous business-centered strategy and unveiled what looks to be a potentially solid contender in the consumer space: the Windows Phone 7 Series.
All of them are characterized for powering a new generation of touch-driven, fast and feature-rich devices that evermore seem to be turning into pocket-sized computers. The fact that three of the most significant companies in desktop computing -- Apple, Google and Microsoft -- now stand to occupy the same positions in mobile is a clear indication of where the industry is going.
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ou may recall Ubisoft's recent decision to axe StarForce DRM in favor of a new online platform. The company's online services platform sounded similar to Steam, letting users play from multiple machines without discs -- but it wasn't perfect. The platform required a permanent Internet connection. Needless to say, gamers weren't happy.
Despite disapproval, Ubisoft is pressing on with the technology. CVG has received Assassin's Creed II and Settlers VII for review, and both are laced with the new mechanism. Granted, being forced to have your machine online is annoying, but the flaws run a bit deeper.
CVG says that if you're disconnected while playing, you're kicked from the game and all progress from the last checkpoint or save is lost. Naturally, this occurs whether your cat unplugs your router, your ISP has issues, or if Ubisoft's servers crash.
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ollowing the successful launch of a slimmer PlayStation 3 model back in September, Sony has announced a beefier 250GB variant of the console is due to hit U.S. stores next month priced at $350. Besides upping storage capacity
, the new system will be otherwise identical to the existing 120GB version which sells for $50 less.
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onsoles have come a long way in a short time, evolving alongside computers as one of the center pieces for video game entertainment. As the line between computer and console begins to blur, it's easy to forget just how far the console has journeyed. A good reminder of that came this week, when the Sega Dreamcast turned ten years old.
The much-hyped console was highly anticipated by gaming communities all over the world, but it ended up proving to be a disaster for Sega as a company, as it was their last console endeavor. Even though it was a commercial failure, the console pioneered many of the ideas that are common among modern consoles.
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As noted in our previous coverage, Microsoft is obviously keen to move customers on to its newest operating systems not just to increase sales but also to reduce support costs. Despite this the company reportedly supplied evidence to the FAS that XP was in fact still available and that it had sold over a million Russian language copies of the operating system in fiscal 2008 (which ended on June 30, 2008).
As part of the agreement to drop the case, Microsoft said it will give Russian users the option of exchanging their copies of Vista Home Basic or Home Premium for Windows XP Home, free of charge. The exchange program will kick off in the next three weeks and will last until the end of 2009.
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s expected, Apple unveiled new iPod models across the board today which bring added functionality and lower prices. A recovered Steve Jobs took the stage for the first time in almost a year to announce that over 225 million iPods have been sold since its introduction in 2001, with the iPod touch representing 20 million of that number and contributing to an overwhelming 74% market share.
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t has been 10 months since Intel unleashed its Nehalem architecture and we showed you the Core i7 920, 940 and 965 Extreme Edition. Not much has changed in the high-end sector during this timeframe, as Core i7 processors are still brutally fast and equally expensive.
The new Intel Core i5 750 is the first release in a series of processors based on a mainstream version of the Core i7 platform. It is a quad-core part based on the "Lynnfield" architecture, fabricated using a 45nm process and utilizing the new LGA1156 platform. The Core i5 750 is set to cost just $199, it will operate at a healthy 2.66GHz and feature a whopping 8MB L3 cache, but no Hyper-Threading support will be present.
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lthough Mozilla released Firefox version 3.5 not long ago, the team has been showing mockups of future designs. In addition to embracing glass on Windows Vista and 7, future versions will have reorganized interfaces. Previews of Firefox 4.0 suggest that it may have a combined and relocated reload, stop and go buttons, as well as a tab sidebar, tabs on top, and many other UI tweaks -- none of which are set in stone.
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amsung is hoping to launch OLED-equipped laptops by the third quarter of next year. According the company's head of worldwide sales and marketing, Kyu Uhm, Samsung is the largest OLED screen manufacturer. Uhm added that Samsung will adopt OLED displays as soon as they are commercially available for laptops.
Research firm Gartner believes that mainstream OLED notebooks will have an increasing presence over the next five years. Samsung is surely sold on the technology, having already shown off an AMOLED notebook prototype. Introducing an OLED laptop toward the end of 2010 woul
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