IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 20/05/2009

Western Digital releases 2TB AV-GP hard drive
Lake Forest bit fisherman Western Digital has now rolled out another hard drive with the almost magical capacity of 2TB. Part of the AV-GP family, which is aimed towards use in set top boxes, DVD recorders, and mainstream surveillance systems, the new drive has a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface, 32MB of buffer, the SilkStream feature to provide smooth, continuous digital video playback of up to 12 simultaneous HD streams, and it makes use of GreenPower technology in order to have a power consumption up to 40% lower than that of similar HDDs.

"Our consumer electronics customers require hard drives that consume less power, generate less heat, and operate quietly," said Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. "Audio and video recording applications, such as DVRs, media servers, media centers, and mainstream surveillance systems, often demand 24x7 operation from hard drives. Our drives meet the demanding requirements of these markets including higher reliability, universal compatibility, low power consumption and the ability to simultaneously record multiple audio and/or high-definition video streams."

The WD20EVDS 2TB drive is now shipping and has a recommended price tag of $299.

NEC and Atheros announce smartphones that serve as Wi-Fi APs
NEC and Atheros Corp. have claimed to have developed a new system which will streamline the process of converting your smartphone into a Wi-Fi access point for other devices. The technology is to be incorporated into the NEC N-06A handset, and is to dأƒآ©but with the Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo. While this new phone is not the first ever to offer wireless - wireless technology, the key introduction is of a true infrastructure mode, whereby no manual connections or configurations are required.

"Atheros AP Mode will be a very compelling feature for the Socomo Prime series NEC N-06A customers, enabling them to create their own next-generation personal area networks," said Yoshiharu Tamura, personal solutions business unit vice president at NEC. "The N-06A allows users to connect to a wireless local area network client device, providing a new class of flexibility and convenience for accessing the internet on the go."

The companies did not provide any information on possible UK or US rollout plans but the technology is definitely 3G and 4G-ready, so compatibility is not a hurdle for consideration. We can hope that other manufacturers begin to adopt the technology, should it prove successful, but the one thing that lingers in mind is... will it be worth the benefit over regular, nice and cheap tethering technology?

Microsoft MyPhone public beta now open
Not too long ago Microsoft announced a concept for a new internet synchronisation tool for cellphones running Windows Mobile - a service which is now running as a public beta for anyone to try.

The "MyPhone" service allows users to automatically synchronise and backup all of the data on your phone, including appointments, contacts, text messages, etc. This also means that you can keep all of these files updated really easily - according to Microsoft. If a user loses their phone or for whatever reason has it reset, they can restore all of their information and be back up and running with the click of a button. Moreover, users are able to upload photos and videos from their phone directly over the air to the service.

Another software update for the service is reportedly due out in the next few weeks, so if you are going to check it out, be aware of that.

Download: Microsoft MyPhone

SmartFTP software version 3.0.1027
SmartFTP allows you to transfer files across the Internet. It features an Explorer-like, customizable interface and supports drag-and-drop functions. Multiple FTP connections can be opened at the same time, and you can copy files from one remote host to another (FXP). Remote-host directory information is cached for future viewing, and FTP URLs are supported. Other features include a Favorites list; the ability to resume broken downloads; a global history; background transfers; proxy support; a passive transfer mode; and the ability to perform recursive downloads, uploads, and deletes.

Most recent changes include:
- SSH: Added GSSAPI Kerberos v5 authentication (requires MIT Kerberos)
- Fix: Dead lock when deleting history items in Settings->History dialog.
- Fix: Transfer Queue: Crash when monitor for items was enable when the transfer queue was in the pause state.
- Fix: File encryption was broken when compression (zlib) was used.
- Fix: aesctr.exe tool.

Website: SmartFTP
Download: SmartFTP 3.0.1027

Rumour provides new iPhone specs lowdown
A report on Wired.com citing a source supposedly "closely connected to the Apple hardware team" listed detailed specifications for the new iPhone, including the launch date of Friday July 17th, and available models - 16GB at $199.99 and 32GB at $299.99.

The reported specifications are as follows:

- 16GB and 32GB storage versions
- 3.2-megapixel camera
- Video-recording and editing capabilities
- Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
- OLED screen
- 1.5 times the battery life of the current models (450 hours standby, 36 hours audio playback, 10.5 hours video playback, 7.5 hours 3G talk time and internet time)
- Double the RAM and processing power
- Built-in FM transmitter
- Built-in compass
- Turn-by-turn directions
- The camera, GPS, compass and Google map combined will identify photo and inform about photo locations

These are fairly substantial upgrades that certainly provide a solid reason to purchase a new iPhone, but at the same time they do not really bring in any jaw dropping and ground breaking technologies to the table.

Design changes listed include:

- Sleeker design
- Rubber-tread backing
- Apple logo on back will glow
- Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device

Of course, if July 17th is the release date planned, then it still won't be until at least early June before we find out what the real specifications are, but these seem safe enough and realistic enough to be legit - and the information is pretty much uniform across various e-reports. We have to hand it to Apple for keeping their secrets safe, as annoying as it is.

Roll on June, let us see what the outcome is when Palm Pre and Apple iPhone go head to head!

Sapphire's Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X pictured
While we're still waiting for the 1GHz GPU clock-topping Radeon HD 4890 Atomic, Sapphire has presented a new RV790-powered card to make use of a Vapor-X cooler. Named simply Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X, the card has a blue PCB and a dual-slot cooler (similar to that used on the Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870), 800 Stream Processors, a 256-bit memory interface and 1GB of GDDR5 memory, CrossFireX support and D-Sub, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

The upcoming card has stock frequencies - 850 MHz (GPU) and 3900 MHz (memory) and should become available in the next few weeks. A factory overclocked version is apparently also in the works.

Buffalo to deliver 24x external DVD writer
Buffalo has now unveiled the DVSM-U24U2 external DVD writer which is capable of burning speeds of up to 24x. Measuring 164 (W) x 50 (H) x 266 (D) mm, the drive weights 1.7kg, has a USB 2.0 interface and delivers write speeds of 24x for DVD+R/-R, 16x for DVD-RAM, 6x for DVD-R/+R DL and DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-RW, 48x for CD-R and 32x for CD-RW.

The DVSM-U24U2 drive is bundled with CyberLink's PowerDirector 7, PowerProducer 5, PowerDVD 8, Power2Go 6, InstantBurn 5 and PowerBackup 2, and is expected to ship early next month with a price tag of about $130 / 95 Euro.

Fujitsu sampling 125أ‚آ°C-rated memory for TVs, digital cameras
Fujitsu Microelectronics has proudly announced that it has begun to deliver the first FCRAM (Fast Cycle RAM) memory chips with a DDR SDRAM interface to have an operating temperature going up to 125أ‚آ°C. According to their maker, the 256 and 512Mbit chips are perfect for use in system-in-packages (SiPs) within digital consumer products like digital TVs and digital video camcorders as they are able to work at higher temperatures than current memory without requiring cooling, thus simplifying and cutting down on board design.

The new memory also has a bus width of 64bit which enabled Fujitsu to lower its frequency and get a 50% reduction in power consumption compared DDR2 SDRAM memory chips with a 16bit bus width, and provides a data transfer rate of 3.2 GB/s while clocked at 200MHz (3.46 GB/s @ 216MHz).

Microsoft's Kumo search said to debut next week
After months of tests, all paired up with a bunch of rumors and leaks, Microsoft's new search engine codenamed Kumo, is reported to be officially unveiled next week at the D: All Things Digital conference (May 26-28). Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is scheduled to speak at the 'D event' in Carlsbad and apparently make the first public demonstration of Kumo, the engine hoped to bring joy to Redmond by grabbing a bigger piece of the web search market where Microsoft is behind Google and Yahoo.

Kumo aims to take on its powerful rivals by providing a more relevant search experience, with better organized results and quicker access to data. We'll just have to wait and see if it delivers.

Palm Pre to sell for $549 without a contract
So we know the Palm Pre is coming out on June 6th and will cost $299 ($199 with a mail-in rebate) with a two-year contract, but how much will people have to pay for the 'standalone' smartphone? Quite a bit would be a diplomatic answer as the Pre is going to cost $549.99 on its own, and it won't be unlocked either so Sprint is really pulling all the stops to 'convince' people to get a Pre with a contract. Not surprising actually but not pleasant for those on other networks that just want a Pre.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 20/05/2009

No comments: