The first indication of the clock speeds of AMD's Thuban six-core chips for consumer PCs has been leaked on Friday. According to BIOS updates and CPU support lists released by Gigabyte, the six-core X6 1035T will be rated at 2.6GHz, while the X6 1055T will run at 2.8GHz and the top-rung, six-core AMD chip will be the Phenom II X6 1075T, with a 3GHz clock speed. This is significantly below the 3.33GHz frequency of Intel's fastest chip, the Core i7-980X, but doesn't necessarily reflect the actual performance gap.
more
Verizon has began offering a push-to-talk app and service for BlackBerry handset owners. As with other push-to-talk systems, users can contact team members or clients by pressing a single button, place group calls with up to 50 participants and check which team members are available thanks to a Presence feature. Verizon's system works over the regular cell network and not iDEN, as on Sprint.
more
The FCC on Friday said it would start the process to once again auction use of a part of the 700MHz wireless spectrum. A notice of inquiry is planned for as soon as the early summer that would open up the D-block frequencies that failed to sell last year. Once ready, the auction could start by early- to mid-2011, FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security chief Jamie Barnett said.
more
7 hours ago | Posted in: computers
MSI on Friday announced the addition of its latest business notebook, the 15.6-inch P600. It runs on an unspecified Intel Core i5 processor and so should be relatively fast for the class. As a pro system, it gets a fingerprint reader for security; its most notable feature its its eight-cell battery, which provides up to eight hours but keeps the PC relatively light at 5.3 pounds.
more
7 hours ago | Posted in: software
Microsoft has posted some of the first official details of its first service packs for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Most of the new developments in Service Pack 1 will be for the server OS, the company said. It adds RemoteFX, a more advanced virtual machine technology that supports newer graphics like Flash or Silverlight, and dynamic memory, which can automatically shift memory to virtual machines that need it.
more
Phonemaker Palm has recently filed for a patent that would enable apps to perform different functions depending on the orientation and placement of the smarpthone they're installed on. This could, for example, let users take a photo in an app when the handset is in a vertical position, be it portrait or landscape, while turning the device so it lays parallel to the ground would open the album so users can view their photos.
more
T-Mobile late Thursday confirmed circulating rumors that it was talking to Clearwire about a possible partnership in the wireless space. The cell network's US chief, Robert Dotson, said his firm was investigating a joint venture with "opportunities for additional spectrum" and that Clearwire was a candidate along with unnamed cable providers. What this would exactly entail wasn't stated, nor was how close T-Mobile was to a deal.
more
(Update: confirmation of Android update) Sprint on Friday made available one phone OS upgrade and leaked another. The provider has posted a Windows Mobile 6.5 update for the HTC Touch Pro2 that gives it all the new features of the Microsoft OS, including the more touch-friendly interface and improved built-in web browser. It should also supply upgrades to HTC's own TouchFLO layer (incorrectly labeled as Sense UI by Sprint) and other minor fixes.
more
Palm was delivered harsh criticism today as analysts downgraded the company following its poor fiscal performance. Canaccord Adams' Peter Misek maintained a "sell" opinion but called for a price target of $0 as he expected the company's situation would only get worse. He predicted a vicious circle that would see carriers and part producers back out with doubts about Palm's ability to stay in business, hurting its ability to sell devices even more.
more
AT&T on Friday said it has introduced a new Global Messaging 50 Package to wireless subscribers that will lower the cost of sending (but not receiving) SMS, MMS and instant messages from more than 90 countries. Customers can add the package to their plans starting tomorrow, March 20th, for $10 per month. For this amount, users can send 50 messages per month internationally, including a mix of text, IMs, photos or videos.
more
Vodafone late yesterday told the Spanish media that a full 3,000 HTC Magic phones shipped to subscribers carried the Mariposa bot discovered earlier. The carrier believes that a batch of microSD cards given out with the Android phone all had the malware loaded and is replacing the storage outright. Vodafone described the incident as "isolated" but wouldn't speculate as to whether Mariposa surfaced at the memory card factory or a later stage in the pipeline.
more
Apple may be counting on games and not e-books to carry the iPad in the early stages, analysts at Flurry found today. Of early developers known to be developing with actual iPads, almost half at 44 percent are making games. E-book apps are in a relative minority but are still second place at 14 percent.
more
Verizon today explained the apparent delayed update to Android 2.1 for the Droid. The carrier claims that the update was released to a small number of Verizon testers, as scheduled, on Thursday afternoon, but the release date for the final, more widespread launch of the software has not been finalized. How many users received the update hasn't been revealed either but is believed to be under 10,000.
more
11 hours ago | Posted in: iPhone, Apple
China Mobile has allegedly asked Apple to create a special version of the iPhone to support the carrier's local network technology, according to a Financial Times report. Chairman and chief executive Wang Jianzhou recently expressed hope to come to an agreement with Apple as soon as possible.
more
The Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus already available in North America may soon finally be released in the UK through O2, according to an unofficial leak. The two handsets are rumored by TracyAndMatt to ship in April after the App Catalog is out of Beta stage in Europe. Pricing has not been revealed, but the devices should be GSM versions of the phones available at Verizon.
more
Microsoft suffered its second legal setback in as many days on Friday with word of a second patent lawsuit from VirnetX. The accuser hopes to expand on the $105.8 million fine against Microsoft by claiming that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 also infringe on the same patents for VPN networking that were the subject of the prior lawsuit. VirnetX didn't specify what it hoped for in damages but characterized the second complaint as plugging a gap that would otherwise exempt newer versions of Windows.
more
