IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 25/05/2012

Yahoo debuts Axis, a new way to search
Yahoo is working hard to turn themselves around from the brink of ruin, and this new Axis search that they have released could just manage to do that. Axis is a new way of searching the web and focuses on getting rid of the search results page. Interested yet? I certainly was, so I investigated the story a bit further.

TechCrunch spoke with Yahoo's Director of Product Management Ethan Batraski: "No one's innovated on 'How do I get rid of the search results page altogether'", Batraski said. "That is what we want to do." And so that's what they did. The new way to search is via a plug in to Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox. There is also an iOS app for this new search.

Once you type in your Yahoo credentials, a small black bar gets added to the bottom left of your browser window. Click inside the search bar and it expands to about 1/3 of your page. No longer do you have to leave the page you are on to do a search. It will probably take a bit of getting used to as I know I am in the habit of quickly Ctrl + T'ing a new window and punching in my query.

The now expanded window fills with thumbnails of the search results as opposed to the traditional links. Users can scroll through the results by dragging the mouse or by clicking on the arrows. The desktop is only half of the new product. The iOS is a browser itself along with being a new search engine. Since it is a browser, I don't see people leaving the stock browser in favor of it, so it takes a bit more effort to get used on iOS. Check it out for yourself at http://axis.yahoo.com.

Overclockers UK get an exclusive BitFenix case, called the BitFenix Prodigy
Mini-ITX cases often lack the physical size required to build a gaming rig with any sort of muscle behind it. The new BitFenix Prodigy, exclusively at Overclockers UK, looks to be a game changer in this regard. The press release is claiming room for nine drives, 120/140mm fans, the possibility of a 240mm radiator and "ample room for even the longest graphic cards."

The case uses a beautiful combination of materials and really stands out from the crowd. While the case is a rounded cube shape, it has large round arch protrusions which act as feet and carrying handles. The handles are made from "FyberFlex" material which is designed not to break or bend permanently. The case itself is constructed from solid steel and is painted in either all black or all white.

The case even features room for a full ATX power supply which is a great addition. When the top hard drive bay is removed, users can fit graphics cards up to 31cm in length inside. Even with the drive bay installed, users can still manage cards up to 16.5cm in length. The price for the new case? A reasonable £59.99 exclusively offered at http://www.overclockers.co.uk.

RumorTT: 7" Google tablet to begin shipping next month
A rumor has surfaced that Google is producing its own tablet to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire. The rumor has been started by DigiTimes who has quoted "sources from the upstream supply chain." While sometimes these sources are right, they are also sometimes wrong. I have a feeling that they could be wrong this time.

According to the reports from upstream sources, there will be around 600,000 in initial shipments ahead of a July launch. This rumor goes along with one that was released back in January, also by DigiTimes, which says that Google is prepping a 7" tablet running Android 4.0 ICS. That rumor put the price point at $199.

That rumor was originally saying a March or April launch date, but has now been updated to July since "design and costs did not reach its expectations." The tablet is reportedly going to be built by ASUS at Google's request. Curiously enough, ASUS showed off a 7" Tegra 3 tablet in their suite at CES and later showed it off at an NVIDIA presentation. The price then was quoted at $249, so this could possibly be the device in question.

Corsair announces SSD upgrade kit for notebooks
Corsair has announced the availability of its new SSD notebook upgrade kits which aid a user in transitioning to a solid state drive. The purpose of changing over to a solid state drive is the better performance and battery life offered by one. They are quite a bit better than their mechanical alternatives, so having an easy upgrade path should help more users transition.

The kits are available in both a 120GB version and a 240GB version and have an MSRP of $139.99 and $259.99 respectively. The kit includes an easy-to-use USB-to-SATA cable and software which help with the data migration. The software is capable of transferring the operating system, program files, and data files to the new drive.

"Laptop owners have become more aware of the performance, power efficiency, and reliability of SSDs but many have been put off by the complexity of moving their existing data," said Thi La, Vice President of Memory Products at Corsair. "The new Force Series 3 SSD Notebook Upgrade Kits simplify the data migration process, making upgrading to an SSD easier than ever."

Obama orders government agencies to create websites optimized for smartphones and tablets
President Obama is embracing technology. On Wednesday, he ordered major governmental agencies to create mobile-optimized websites. The agencies have to provide two key services to mobile users within a year. The directive also ordered agencies to create websites to report on their mobile websites progress. These sites have to be completed in just 90 days.

I've had to go onto government sites from my phone before and it's near impossible to gather anything as the site is designed for desktops, and not even designed that well for those. Obama has recognized this fact and realized the importance of mobile phones and data access. By 2015, it's likely more web traffic will come from mobile devices than desktops.

"Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device," Obama said in a statement. "By making important services accessible from your phone and sharing government data with entrepreneurs, we are giving hard-working families and businesses tools that will help them succeed."

Kevin Kelly, COO of LGS Innovations:

I applaud the government for having the foresight and initiative to develop a comprehensive strategy to advance of some of the most attractive attributes of today's communications solutions," he said in an email. "The strategy that they have developed, in collaboration with industry, clearly emphasizes the need to provide reliable, secure, and cost effective access to mission-critical and citizen-centric services anytime, anywhere.

MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Power Edition Overclocked Video Card Review

Introduction

AMD's Radeon HD 7850 is a model we haven't had a huge look at since its launch earlier in the year. With a number of models launching around it from both AMD and NVIDIA and then a new CPU and chipset launch from Intel meant that the HD 7850 probably didn't get quite the attention that it deserved.

Today, though, we're looking at one that grabbed our attention straight away. The HD 7850 we're looking at today from MSI comes in as part of the Power Edition series, a series that has looked good every time we've tested one.

The HD 7850 is a good model to fall under the Power Edition series, though, due to the fact that out of the box we don't get voltage adjustment on the HD 7850. Adding the ability to adjust the voltage on the core along with a few other areas should bring with it strong overclocking ability.

As always there are a few things we need to do before we cover the overclocking side of things. The first thing we want to do is take a closer look at the package to see what MSI is giving us with this model here today. Once we've done that we'll then move onto the video card itself to see what it's able to offer us.

Once we've taken a look at the video card we'll take a closer look at the specifications and see what kind of clocks we get out of the box from MSI before we then cover the overclocking side of things. Of course once we've done that we'll take a quick look at the testbed and then get into the performance side of things to see just how this Power Edition model from MSI goes.

Package

Looking at the box we get a good idea of some of the main features that are on offer here today. The big one with the Power Edition series is of course the Triple Over-Voltage feature that brings the ability to increase the voltage of the Core, Aux and memory which in turn should bring with it a stronger overclock compared to a video card that doesn't include this ability.

Along with that we've got the Military Class III components which bring Hi-c CAP, Super Ferrite Choke and Solid Capacitors. Finally the other big feature to the video card is the Twin Frozr IV cooler which we'll take a closer look at in a moment when we move onto the video card.

As for the bundle we've got the normal line up of paperwork and the standard driver CD. Along with that we've got a dual Molex to 6-pin PCIe power connector, DVI to VGA connector and MiniDP to DisplayPort connector to round the bundle off. Overall we've got a nice bundle and the inclusion of the MiniDP to DP connector is a good inclusion that we continue to see most companies skip nowadays.
... Read the rest in your browser!

Intel Introduces Cloud-Based Identity Solution for Salesforce and Other Cloud Applications
Intel® Cloud SSO, a cloud-based Identity and Access Management-as-a-Service (IAMaaS) is now delivered on Force.com*, salesforce.com's social enterprise platform, Intel Corporation announced today.

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The solution will help enterprise users utilize their Salesforce credentials to access popular cloud applications. Single sign-on (SSO) from Force.com provides seamless access to applications, such as Box.com Cisco* WebEx*, Google* Apps and Salesforce, improving end-user convenience and increasing security, while reducing the number of passwords required. Enterprises can rely on Intel Cloud SSO to deliver identity and access management functions in the cloud; provision, synchronize and de-provision access to thousands of cloud applications; address security concerns with 2-factor mobile-based strong authentication; and deliver comprehensive reporting and auditing features to comply with regulatory requirements.

"Today, outsourcing identity and security as a service is a viable, fully functional and economical option for companies of all sizes," said Girish Juneja, director, Intel Application Security and Identity Products. "The prospect of removing security complexity and relieving the burden of providing connectivity to an ever-increasing list of SaaS apps just makes business sense. Small companies will be able to dramatically increase security over custom in-house solutions and larger enterprises can quickly supplement on-premise identity infrastructure to secure remote, mobile or M&A-acquired user populations With Intel Cloud SSO's support for federated SSO standards, a company can maintain full control and gain confidence that the solution is delivered via a proven cloud platform with Force.com."

Intel and saleforce.com are joining forces to deliver this multi-tenant service offering on Force.com. Initial capabilities include cloud SSO, convenient strong 2-factor authentication using one-time password (OTP) delivered via mobile devices (including Apple* iPhone/iPad, Android* devices or RIM* Blackberry), user account provisioning/de-provisioning, as well as an application portal providing secure access to a catalog of authorized cloud applications. Administrators can manage and monitor user's cloud access, and collect activity data for auditing and regulatory compliance from a centrally hosted management console. The application supports user authentication and account synchronization with on-premise enterprise identity repositories, such as Active Directory* or any LDAP-enabled directory, via a lightweight Identity Bridge that is available for download by an administrator. Support for industry standards, such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), OpenID, Simple Cloud Identity Management (SCIM), offer assurance that the application will keep pace as the market matures.

"Social enterprises are changing the way they collaborate, communicate and share information in the cloud," said Ron Huddleston, senior vice president, ISV and Channel at salesforce.com. "Intel Cloud SSO provides customers strong authentication from mobile devices and other platforms to help customers achieve heightened security while taking advantage of the social, mobile and trusted capabilities expected from the salesforce.com ecosystem."

In addition, Box, a leading cloud-based collaboration and file-sharing company, has joined with Intel to offer a free Enterprise trial account to users who sign up for Intel Cloud SSO.

Intel Cloud SSO is part of a broader cloud security play from Intel and McAfee to provide an intervening, policy-driven layer among users, application services, and device endpoints - all centered around a model of identity-aware security. The McAfee Cloud Security Platform launched last year provides on-premise, or "as-a-service," technology enablement solutions to simplify or broker consumption of cloud services for the enterprise or cloud service providers. Intel Cloud SSO will be the first identity as a service offering to be certified as having enterprise-class security controls by the Cloud Security Alliance's STAR (Security Trust and Assurance Registry) initiative.

The trial version of Intel Cloud SSO is available immediately at http://www.intelcloudsso.com, or on salesforce.com's AppExchange, the app marketplace for the social enterprise, at http://appexchange.salesforce.com. For more information, visit http://www.intel.com/go/identity. For more on the McAfee Cloud Security Platform, visit http://www.mcafee.com/cloud.

Rambus Announces Winners of the 2012 "Innovator of the Future" Scholarship Award
Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), one of the world's premier technology licensing companies, today announced it has awarded its annual "Innovator of the Future" scholarship to Shubha Raghvendra of St. Francis High School and Jamshed Vesuna of Los Altos High School.

Each student has been awarded $10,000 for tuition and books at a college or university. The scholarship money will be distributed in equal increments over four years at the beginning of each academic year. In addition to the scholarship awards, a one-time award of $1,000 will go to each of the four finalists in this year's scholarship program.

"At Rambus, we continue our commitment to helping future innovators broaden their educational opportunities beyond the classroom," said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus. "Both Jamshed and Shubha have demonstrated the enthusiasm and passion necessary to explore careers in the area of science and technology."

Established in 2005, the Rambus Innovator of the Future scholarship program recognizes students based on academic excellence, passion for technology, leadership in school, civic and extracurricular activities, and motivation to serve and succeed.

Eligibility for the Rambus Innovator of the Future scholarship award extends to individuals attending a select group of high schools located near the Rambus Sunnyvale headquarters, and graduating before fall 2012 with plans to attend a four-year college or university program of study beginning in fall 2012. Applications for the 2013 Rambus Innovator of the Future scholarships will be available during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Diablo® III Sets PC-Game Launch Record
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that as of the first 24 hours of Diablo® III's release, more than 3.5 million copies had been sold, setting the new all-time record for fastest-selling PC game.* That number does not include the more than 1.2 million players who received Diablo III as part of signing up for the World of Warcraft® Annual Pass promotion. Altogether, more than 4.7 million gamers around the world were poised to storm Sanctuary on day 1 of Diablo III's release -- representing the biggest PC-game launch in history.

As of the first week of the game's availability, that number had already grown to more than 6.3 million.* The above figures also do not include players in Korean Internet game rooms, where Diablo III has become the top-played game, achieving a record share of more than 39% as of May 22.†

"We're definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support."

"Regarding today's announcement, we recognize that setting a new launch record is a big achievement," Morhaime continued. "However, we're especially proud of the gameplay feedback we've received from players worldwide. We're pleased that Diablo III has lived up to players' high expectations, and we're looking forward to welcoming more players into Sanctuary in the days ahead."

Diablo III went live on May 15, with more than 8,000 retailers throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau opening their doors to players at midnight or concurrently with the local release time in celebration of the launch. In addition to being able to buy the game at retail stores, gamers in the regions above as well as in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil are also able to purchase Diablo III digitally via the official Diablo III website (http://www.diablo3.com).

Commenting on the game's sales achievement, Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop, stated, "Diablo III was one of our biggest PC launches ever and will help make this a record year for Blizzard at GameStop."

According to John Love, director of video games at Amazon.com, "Not only did Diablo III break the record for most preordered PC game of all-time on Amazon.com, but it also shattered the record for best day-one sales for any PC game ever on Amazon.com." Blizzard thanks its retail partners around the world for their support and commitment to the Diablo series.

Diablo III is available for Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 and Macintosh® at a suggested price of $59.99 USD for both the retail DVD-ROM version and the digital version sold directly from Blizzard. The game has received a Mature rating from the ESRB.

Players in the Latin American countries listed above and in Russia will be able to purchase Diablo III at local retail locations starting June 7. Digital availability via http://www.diablo3.com for the Russian version of the game will also begin June 7. In addition to the English version, Diablo III is fully localized into Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Korean, and traditional Chinese.

Diablo III is the latest chapter in Blizzard's critically acclaimed action-role-playing-game series. The game continues the epic Diablo storyline, with players taking on the role of one of five heroic characters -- barbarian, witch doctor, wizard, monk, or demon hunter -- and embarking on a perilous quest to save the world of Sanctuary from the corrupting forces of the Burning Hells. As players adventure through rich and varied settings, they'll engage in pulse-pounding combat with hordes of monsters and challenging bosses, grow in experience and ability, acquire artifacts of incredible power, and meet key characters who'll join them in battle or aid them in other ways. Diablo III features the intuitive interface, fast-paced action, and visceral gameplay that Diablo players have come to expect and enjoy.

Designed from the ground up to leverage the full functionality of the Battle.net® platform, Diablo III also provides gamers with industry-leading matchmaking and communication tools, allowing adventurers to seamlessly join forces for cooperative play. Battle.net also provides the infrastructure for the Diablo III auction house, a feature-rich marketplace that Sanctuary's heroes can use to trade their hard-earned treasures. To learn more about the auction house and the other features of Diablo III, please visit the official website at http://www.diablo3.com.

With multiple games in development, Blizzard Entertainment has numerous positions currently available -- visit http://jobs.blizzard.com for more information and to learn how to apply.

Seagate and LaCie Announce Exclusive Agreement with Intent for Seagate to Acquire Controlling Interest in LaCie
Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, and LaCie S.A. (Euronext: LAC), a leading manufacturer of consumer storage products, today announced an exclusive agreement with the intent for Seagate to acquire a controlling interest in LaCie. Seagate has offered to purchase from Philippe Spruch, LaCie's chairman and CEO, and his affiliate, all of their shares, representing 64.5% of the outstanding shares of LaCie. Following receipt of governmental approvals1 and the close of this transaction, Seagate would commence an all-cash simplified tender offer (followed as the case may be by a squeeze-out procedure) to acquire the remaining outstanding shares in accordance with the General Regulation of the French Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF).

Seagate has offered Mr. Spruch and his affiliate €4.05 per share in cash, minus a potential adjustment depending on the cash and debt position of LaCie at closing. This price may be increased by a possible price supplement of 3% in the event that the threshold of 95% of the shares and voting rights of LaCie would be reached by Seagate within 6 months following closing, resulting in a maximum potential price per LaCie share of €4.17. Without the price supplement, the offer currently values LaCie at an approximate €146 million, or $186 million total equity value, including acquired net cash of approximately €49 million, or $65 million, as of March 31, 2012. The €4.05 per share price represents a premium of 29% to LaCie's average closing stock price over the 30 trading days ended May 22, 2012.

Ricol Lasteyrie & Associes was appointed today as independent expert by the board of directors of LaCie, to deliver a fairness opinion on the price that would be offered in the context of the tender offer, including in the perspective of a potential squeeze-out procedure.

The transaction would combine two highly complementary product and technology portfolios, adding LaCie's line of premium branded consumer storage solutions, network-attached storage solutions and software offerings to Seagate's array of mainstream consumer storage products. The combination would accelerate Seagate's growth strategy in the expanding consumer storage market, particularly in Europe and Japan, and add strong engineering and software development capabilities, as well as relationships with several key retailers.

The transaction is expected to be neutral to Seagate's fiscal 2013 earnings per share.

Following the close of the sale of his shares to Seagate, Mr. Spruch would join Seagate and lead the company's consumer storage products organization. Reporting to him would be Patrick Connolly, who currently serves as vice president and general manager of Seagate's retail group, as well as Pierre van der Elst, who currently serves as deputy general manager of LaCie. The financial terms of the new position of Mr Spruch are not determined as of today and would therefore be described subsequently, including in the tender offer documentation.

"Seagate has a strong commitment to the growing consumer storage market and bringing the most dynamic products to market. LaCie has built an exceptional consumer brand by delivering exciting and innovative high-end products for many years. This transaction would bring a highly complementary set of capabilities to Seagate, significantly expand our consumer product offerings, add a premium-branded direct-attached storage line, strengthen our network-attached storage business line and enhance our capabilities in software development," said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and CEO. "We are also excited that Philippe, who is a true visionary and leader in the consumer storage business, would join Seagate to run our consumer storage products organization."

"With the proliferation of devices and content being shared and stored today, consumer demand for high-quality branded storage solutions continues to grow," said Philippe Spruch, LaCie's chairman and CEO. "We are excited about the potential for this combination to benefit customers and employees by creating significant scale and opening up new markets. We look forward to making the resources of a much larger company available to our customers around the world."

LaCie will initiate the information and consultation process required by its employee representative council in relation to the contemplated transaction, in accordance with French law. Upon completion of this process, Seagate and Mr. Spruch would execute a definitive share purchase agreement and finalize the purchase of the controlling interest held by Mr. Spruch and his affiliate. This share purchase transaction is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2012 pending completion of the relevant governmental reviews. Seagate would then commence a tender offer for the remaining outstanding shares of LaCie (followed as the case may be by a squeeze-out procedure), subject to a clearance decision from the AMF. The tender offer is expected to be completed in the third calendar quarter of 2012.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in the United States (antitrust filing), France (approval of foreign investments by the Ministry of Finance) and other jurisdictions (antitrust filing in Germany) and to other customary closing conditions.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as financial advisor and Allen & Overy LLP served as legal advisor to Seagate in connection with the transaction. De Pardieu Brocas Maffei A.A.R.P.I. served as legal advisor to LaCie.

Available Tags:Yahoo , Overclockers , UK , Google , tablet , SSD , MSI , Radeon , Intel , Other , Seagate , Seagate ,

Friday, May 25, 2012

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 25/05/2012

Introduction

Package

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