IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 10/07/2009

Microsoft brings Bing to Hotmail quick add feature
Fives weeks old and Bing is already expanding to other Microsoft services, with the move made yesterday being into Hotmail territory. The quite hyped search/decision engine has been included in Hotmail's quick add function which enables users to do a speed search (with Bing) straight from the inbox and add some of the content resulted (images, videos, maps, etc) into the email they want to send.

For starters Bing is available with quick add only in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, and China.

HANNSG releases the HH251HP 25-inch LCD monitor
HANNSpree has now debuted the HH monitor series under its HANNSG brand, and introduced the first model to be part of it, the HH251HP. Seen below, the 25-inch widescreen LCD has a high gloss, black mirror finish frame, and features a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a 5ms response time (2ms GTG), a 800:1 contrast ratio (15000:1 DCR), and a brightness of 300 cd/m2.

Now available, the HH251HP also boasts two 1.5W speakers, provides D-Sub, DVI and dual HDMI connectivity, comes with a 3-year warranty, and is priced at أ‚آ£183.99 / $298 / 214 Euro.

Packard Bell intros new ixtreme desktop PC
The summer refresh of Packard Bell's PC offer continues with the revamp of the ixtreme desktop. The updated ixtreme comes in a sleek glossy black chassis with matt accents boasting top-placed multi-card reader and I/O panel, has a 'Photo Frame' button that will immediately displays images from the hard disc or memory card on the monitor just like a digital photo frame, and includes a 'My BackUp' button for easy backup of data on an external storage device.

In terms of components, the desktop PC can be equipped with a Core 2 Quad, Core i7 or Phenom II X4 processor, up to 12GB of RAM, a maximum of 3TB in storage space, a DVD or Blu-Ray drive, Intel integrated graphics or a GeForce discrete graphics card (up to a GTS 250 with 1GB of memory), and even a DVBT TV tuner.

The ixtreme comes with Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed and has a starting price tag of أ‚آ£599.

EMC to acquire Data Domain for $2.1 billion
The bid was is officially over, NetApp has stepped down and EMC Corporation will be the one shelling out $33.50 per share or about $2.1 billion in all, to buy Data Domain. By acquiring Data Domain EMC will be able to expand its reach into the fast-growing next-generation disk-based backup and archive market.

"This is a compelling acquisition from both a strategic and financial standpoint," said Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman, President and CEO. "We look forward to bringing Data Domain together with EMC to form a powerful force in next-generation disk-based backup and archive. I have tremendous respect for Data Domain's people, technology and business, and anticipate great things ahead for our respective companies, our customers and partners."

According to EMC's plans, the transaction brining Data Domain under its wing will be completed by the end of this month.

ArcSoft adds ATI Stream support to SimHD plug-in
Available with CUDA support since April, the SimHD plug-in for TotalMedia Theatre can now also play nice with AMD's GPGPU technology, ATI Stream. With the extended functionality, users that have Stream-enabled graphics cards will 'see' their GPU being used by the TotalMedia Theatre media player for upscaling standard-definition video to near high-definition quality.

"The complicated calculation conducted during real time upscaling has always been challenging," said George Tang, ArcSoft Vice President and General Manager of Video and Home Entertainment Group. "With ATI Stream, SimHD is able to take advantage of GPGPU, performs much faster during playback while presenting the ultimate video quality to users."

The CUDA and Stream-supporting SimHD is available this page priced at $19.95. A trial version can be downloaded for free.

New Sony VAIO P ultra-portable coming in Q4
The VAIO P is not your usual portable PC, with its high-resolution 8-inch screen, compact size and not so wallet-friendly price tag, but that apparently didn't stop it from finding a place in the market and adding to Sony's revenue. Maybe Sony won't call it a success yet the VAIO P is going to live on as the Japanese company is currently working on new models which will make their debut in Q4, either in October or November.

Apart from providing much lower boot times, the VAIO P 2(?) is a blur, and we'll probably have to wait a little while to find its specs. It would be interesting to see it make use of Intel's upcoming Pine Trail-M platform though.

Asus M4A785TD-M EVO board packs 785G chipset, more copper
Still upcoming and still not officially announced, the AMD 785G chipset is the silicon powering the microATX motherboard seen below, the M4A785TD-M EVO. The new board features a 2oz copper PCB (like quite a few Gigabyte products), the Express Gate instant-on OS, and has support for AM3 processors, four DDR3-1800 memory slots, plus one PCI-Express x16 slot.

The M4A785TD-M EVO also boasts Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics (Hybrid CrossFireX support included) backed by 128MB of SidePort memory, one eSATA and five SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs, an EPU (Energy Processing Unit) for higher energy efficiency, and features like Q-Fan, CrashFree BIOS 3, AI NET2, MyLogo 2 and EZ Flash 2.

If all goes well then the M4A785TD-M EVO should become available later this quarter so keep an eye out for it.

OCZ halts shipments of Elpida Hyper-based memory modules too
Following Corsair's lead, the OCZ Technology Group or OCZ for short, has also decided to stop delivering DDR3 modules that are equipped with Elpida's Hyper DRAMs. OCZ claims that it didn't see any spike in failure rates with the Hyper-based RAM but "as a proactive measure based on the latest information from media reviewers like AnandTech" it decided to stop using the DRAMs, at least for now.

Those having problems with their memory are advised to contact OCZ which promises to take care of all customers either with a refund or an exchange for another product of equal value. Now when will Kingston fess up?

Prolimatech delivers the PK-1 thermal compound
Taiwanese newcomer Prolimatech has officially introduced its first thermal paste, the PK-1 Nano Aluminum. Coming in a 5-gram syringe, the 'high-grade' compound has a thermal conductivity of 10.2 W/m أ‚آ° C, an adhesiveness of 31000 Cps, and is bundled with a card to help spread it properly after applying it on the CPU (or GPU).

The Prolimatech PK-1 Nano Aluminum is now available at $10.99 / 9.90 Euro.

Ericsson and Sprint ink multi-billion network services agreement
Telecom equipment and service provider Ericsson and telecommunications company Sprint Nextel have just signed a seven-year deal that will see the former manage Sprint's network and get between $4.5 billion and $5 billion for its 'trouble'. Through the agreement, which has been named 'Network Advantage', some 6,000 Sprint employees will start to operate as Ericsson staff from later this quarter.

Sprint hopes that this move will improve the effectiveness of its network, and enable it to focus on delivering a superior customer experience, innovative services and popular new devices.

"No other U.S.-based carrier has followed through on the business-enhancing vision inherent in Network Advantage," said Sprint's Steve Elfman, President of Network Operations and Wholesale. "Our best-ever network performance will become even better by leveraging Ericsson's world-class leadership in network services, their proprietary tools, and the knowledge of more than 30,000 dedicated and highly-specialized service professionals to power Sprint's Now Network."

According to the deal Ericsson is going to assume responsibility for the day-to-day services, provisioning and maintenance for the Sprint-owned CDMA, iDEN and wireline networks. Sprint will still have full ownership and control of its network assets, will solely decide on network strategy and investments and will retains technology and vendor selections.

Friday, July 10, 2009

IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 10/07/2009

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