IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (Overclockers Club) 18/03/2010

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Verizon Announces Android 2.1 Upgrade for Motorola Droid

Droid users have been waiting for the latest upgrade to version 2.1 of the operating system for a couple of months now. The upgrade will finally put it on par, from an OS standpoint, with Google's Nexus One. By installing the upgrade, Droid owners will get a raft of new features including pinch-to-zoom in the browser, Gallery and Google Maps. There are many more feature upgrades including a new Google Maps app, live animated wallpapers, support for Yahoo Mail, voice-to-text entry, a 3D gallery layout and more.

Based on the reports circulating around the Web, Droid users could begin receiving the upgrades as early as March 18. With the Droid and Nexus One now sporting the latest version, that's going to put pressure on other Android handset makers to bring their phones up to date as many are still stuck running Android 1.5 and 1.6.

Test Drive Internet Explorer 9

Not even a beta has been released for Microsoft's newest web browser, Internet Explorer 9, but that doesn't have to stop you from testing it out. You can download the "Internet Explorer Platform Preview" over at the official site, and there are even some demos you can play around with that don't require you installing the Platform Preview. Just be aware that this isn't a replacement to your current browser of choice. A Platform Preview is not a beta version and doesn't provide you with full browsing capabilities - there's not even an address bar! The purpose of the Platform Preview is really for developers to get a taste of things to come. In addition, you must be running Windows Vista or Windows 7 with IE8 installed - IE9's GPU-powered graphics take advantage of technologies not found in earlier operating systems, like Windows XP.

Will IE9 replace Firefox and Chrome for many of us? Probably not. But it's still a huge step forward for Microsoft's IE, finally catching up to the other browsers after all these years.

ZOTAC Prepares 'MAG' Mini-PCs

ZOTAC is preparing four new "MAG" mini-PCs modeled around the recently unveiled ZBOX mini-PC. The new mini-PCs are based on various nettop platforms and are designed to be used almost anywhere, such as in the living room or kitchen. All models include a 160GB hard drive, SDHC card reader, USB 2.0, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi. Each MAG will measure 18.8x18.8x4.4cm (LxWxD).

The preliminary price and specifications of each MAG will vary between models, as shown below:

HD-ID11 model - 1.66 GHz Atom 510 dual-core CPU / 1GB of RAM / Next-gen ION (GT218 GPU with 512MB dedicated memory) / $255
HD-ND21 model - 1.3 GHz Processor SU4100 dual-core CPU / 2GB of RAM / ION (first-gen) / $300
HD-ND02 model - 1.6 GHz Atom 330 dual-core CPU / 2GB of RAM (DDR3) / ION (first-gen) / $217
HD-AD01 model - 1.5 GHz Athlon X2 Neo L325 dual-core CPU / 2GB of RAM / ATI Radeon HD 3200 / $242

It's interesting to note that an AMD chipset, CPU and graphics solution is used in the HD-AD01 model, with the growing dominance of NVIDIA's ION and the Intel Atom CPU in low-end "miniature" PCs. The ZOTAC MAG mini-PC line-up should be available later this month.

Blu-ray Player Prices Come Down

Even though the price of DVD movies are still the best deal for the vast majority of consumers, Blu-ray adoption is creeping its way up, though very slowly. This slow adoption is due mainly to high prices, in both the player market, and in the physical media portion of the market. Though the media is still selling at high prices, and is not yet set to come down at all, the prices of Blu-ray players seems to be dropping quite a bit as the market progresses. Recently, prices for the high-definition media players have gone down from over one hundred dollars, into the seventy, and eighty dollar region. While these players that fall into the lower price range category may not have all of the features or greatest quality of the top models, they still offer Blu-ray capability.

Macs Beat Windows in Support Costs

In a recent survey conducted by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, Macs were shown to have a leg up on Windows in some areas. In the corporate environments that took part in the study, Macs were found to have lower support costs than their Windows counterparts. Despite the higher initial cost, many that were surveyed planned to increase use of Macs to cut down on support costs and increase productivity. Both were observed to have similar costs associated with software licenses. A higher adoption rate in the enterprise world would certainly help Apple take some market share from rival Microsoft.

A New CPU Cooling Method?

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a new method of cooling CPUs. The new method involves a piece of silicon with nanometer-sized grooves cut into the surface that will allow water to flow both ways. Yes, that means both up (against gravity) and down the silicon surface. The grooves are so incredibly precise that when you rub your finger across it, it feels smooth to the touch. The grooves also happen to trap light photons which give the surface a pitch-black appearance. So not only does it keep the silicon cool, it also looks cool as well.

The technology is still in the experimental stage but one day we may no longer need cooling blocks and thermal paste to keep our overclocked processors from overheating.

Razer DeathAdder Left Hand Edition: A Gaming Mouse for Southpaws

If you are a left-handed gamer, then you are probably stuck with either using an ambidextrous mouse in your natural hand, or training your weaker right hand so that you have considerably more hardware options available to you. Razer are now giving southpaws another solution, with the DeathAdder Left Hand Edition. This comes with all of the features of the regular DeathAdder, which means things like a 3500dpi infrared sensor, 1000MHz polling and five Hyperesponse programmable buttons, but in a body that is mirrored from the original so it fits snugly in your left hand.

Now, the market for left hand gaming mice is understandably small, so Razer are actually expecting to lose money making the left handed DeathAdder (I would guess because initial tooling costs will be harder to recoup). I would guess Razer could charge a premium in this case, but the DeathAdder Left Hand Edition will have the same $59.99 MSRP that the original had; isn't that nice of them. Razer are also running a competition to win one of five DeathAdder Left Hand Edition mice and you can find details of how to enter on its website.

ISPs Respond to FCC National Broadband Plan

Yesterday, the FCC submitted its National Broadband Plan to Congress. The basis of the Plan is that six goals must be met in the next decade by the ISPs in America. Such goals include internet for every American and a minimum of 100 million U.S. homes with affordable access to 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up broadband. A few of the major ISPs in America responded to the plan, virtually all having good things to say about it. Glenn Britt, the president, chairman, and CEO of Time Warner Cable, says his company will work with the FCC to ensure its goals are met and that Time Warner shares the same goals in the long run. Both Verizon and Comcast echo the sentiments from Time Warner and Verizon even offers praise for the heads of the FCC that got the Plan rolling. The CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has similar words though he goes on to say that America will achieve the goal of broadband for all by choice and not chance.

I am all in favor of broadband for a big portion of the population of the country. I am sure we are all tired of the high prices we pay for a decently fast connection, although people in other countries enjoy much faster internet at a similar or even cheaper price in some cases. Here is to hoping the National Broadband Plan sees proper fruition.

Microsoft Introduces Three More 720p Webcams

There aren't many webcams around that deliver real HD performance (i.e. at decent frame rates), so MS introducing three new models is certainly welcome. The LifeCam HD-5000, HD-5001 and HD-6000 for notebooks all follow on from the previous release of the LifeCam Cinema last year and appear to carry similar features to that camera. The main addition is that of Microsoft's new TrueColor Technology, which makes use of both software and firmware along with face detection to ensure video isn't over or under-exposed. It's worth noting that LifeCam Cinema owners will also be able to make use of TrueColor Technology through a firmware and software update.

Pricing for the new webcams also comes in at less than for the Cinema, with the HD-5000 and HD-5001 carrying recommended retail prices of $49.95, while the HD-6000 for notebooks gets a recommended price of $59.95. Note that the HD-5001 is simply a special edition of the HD-5000 carried only by Best Buy and has a design with a white faceplate rather than black. Of course, you are going to need a computer with a decent specification to get the best from these cameras at high resolutions, with the recommendation being an Intel Dual-Core 3GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. It would have been nice to see h.264 hardware encoding added so this wasn't as much of an issue, but the new cams do appear to offer good value for money. You should expect to see the HD-5000 and HD-5001 available later this month, with the HD-6000 coming in May.

Further Windows Phone 7 Details Emerge

Mary-Jo Foley, over at ZDNet, compiled a list of various questions regarding Windows Phone 7 that has been answered thus far during her time at the Microsoft Mix 10 conference. One big question that always pops up when it comes to smart phones is the multitasking ability. Microsoft's own "experiences" will allow for multitasking, but third party applications won't be afforded the same flexibility, at least not at the onset. Microsoft will make more multitasking support available for all applications over time, when things like battery life and network utilization are improved. In the meantime, third party apps will still be able to push notifications. Check out the article for other questions and answers, such as C# being the only current development language and the extent of enterprise support.

IE9 to Feature Hardware Accelerated Browsing

Microsoft today released the Beta version of Internet Explorer 9 during the MIX10 conference currently underway in Las Vegas. The next version of IE will include expanded support for HTML5, hardware-accelerated graphics and text, and a new JavaScript engine. By shifting some of the processing load to the GPU, IE9 will allow developers to deliver graphically and functionally rich Web applications that take advantage of modern PC hardware through a modern operating system. Microsft also demonstrated a new JavaScript engine capable of using the multiple cores on today's modern processors to better manage computing resources and improve Web performance.

According to a blog post at NVIDIA:

Today, with introduction of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft gives us another milestone for visual computing. Internet Explorer 9 includes a new JavaScript engine, support for HTML5 and hardware accelerated graphics and text. Internet Explorer 9 is the first browser designed to take advantage of modern hardware, resulting in graphics and performance improvements throughout the browser including the first to deliver hardware accelerated scalable vector graphics( SVG); the first to enhance JavaScript engine performance with the benefit of shifting from the CPU to the GPU; and the first to deliver GPU-Powered HTML5.

While some of the above comments are sure to raise responses from users of other browsers and operating systems, this is still good news for users with more modern systems and may coax some folks back into the Internet Explorer fold.

Dell Suing Manufacturers for Price Fixing

Dell has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Fransisco over allegations of price fixing. The companies targeted in the suit are Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba, Seiko Epson, and HannStar Display. These five companies provide Dell with display panels for its monitors, which in my experience are quite nice. Several of these companies have been accused of price fixing in the past, most recently by Nokia in December 2009. By price fixing, these companies are able to offer the illusion of competition, while they are still able to get the prices they want. Dell is suing for a currently unknown amount of monetary compensation.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

IT News HeadLines (Overclockers Club) 18/03/2010

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