News Archive for 08/01/31
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Motorola today announced it is exploring the possibility of restructuring its business strategies in order to recoup its status as a top wireless equipment provider. After having recently been bumped to third behind Nokia and Samsung, Motorola is taking steps to win back marketshare, and in turn, enhance the value of its shares. One avenue the company is exploring is to divide its wireless business from the rest of its daily operations, allowing each party to concentrate fully on their various tasks.
Nokia will use much of its time at next month's Mobile World Congress to demonstrate future technology for its smartphones, the company says in two entries on its official Symbian series 60 (S60) blog. The Finnish firm had previously previewed a small number of technologies at its Go:Play event last year but now intends to elaborate on its plans. The Touch UI (user interface) will be shown in greater detail and should include new additions such as vibration feedback for commands and a new programming platform, called the UI Accelerator Toolkit, that will allow more visually advanced interfaces for both Nokia and third-party developers.
A federal court has upheld a ruling in favor of TiVo in its case against the Dish Network, the Associated Press writes. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is supporting a lower court's verdict, which holds that the Dish Network violated one of TiVo's software patents. Specifically the patent addresses split recording and viewing, one of TiVo's signature features, although neither TiVo nor Dish are the sole users of the concept.
The two unknown companies reported to be using the MacBook Air's processor are Fujitsu and Lenovo, CNET claims to have confirmed. The systems themselves have not been leaked but are expected to roll out "shortly," the alleged sources say. The extra-small packaging of the processor is nonetheless expected to offer a blend between the thinner and smaller designs of ultraportables and the performance of a standard notebook. The chips in use by Apple are clocked slower than most Intel mobile chips at 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz but include the 4MB of Level 2 cache from faster processors and consume much less power on average than current full-size chips.
The percentage Macs occupy in the US computer market should double within the next three years, a new analysis claims. The research firm Gartner is predicting that by 2011, Apple will control over 12 percent of US computer ownership, making the company a major player, if still likely to be dwarfed by Windows vendors Dell and HP. Market share is also expected to double for Apple in western Europe.
Dell today denied claims that it would release a phone developed with Google at next month's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. Company spokeswoman Anne Camden explains that Dell neither has any product to announce at the event nor has any plans to attend. The official did not explicitly confirm or deny the possibility of a phone at any point in the future, making any announcement unlikely until considerably later in the year at the earliest.
Sony at today's press conference for the PMA photography show confirmed that its 24.8-megapixel photo sensor is destined for a future pro digital SLR camera. The news ends concerns that the sensor would be used only for scientific use and is also accompanied by very early details of the camera itself. Sony has already developed a version of its in-house Super SteadyShot image stabilization to automatically sensor-shift and counter blurring. The new model should also be part of the Alpha line rather than a new model and so should share many features, potentially including those from the new A300 series.
Slacker today ended months of delays with news that it began shipping the Slacker Portable. True to the original concept, the company's inaugural player is built around the notion of the device as both an online and offline radio station. Although users can still load their own content, the player is built to automatically download and play preset or user-made content channels over Wi-Fi; while users have less control, it provides an effectively unlimited stream of new, relevant music which is still accessible for hours while offline, Slacker says. Each track is accompanied by extended details about the artist.
Research in Motion has developed what should be the company's first consumer-oriented phone add-on, FCC filings show. The device is currently known as the BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway, and is essentially a Bluetooth receiver that connects directly to a audio system while streaming music from a nearby BlackBerry phone. It may in theory be compatible with other Bluetooth devices as well, since such receivers do not typically use proprietary instructions. No release date has been made public.
SanDisk is preparing the release of two new SDHC cards in its Ultra II line. The preeminent one is a 32GB model, representing the largest possible size for the SDHC format; this is still rarely seen in the commercial market. Unlike Toshiba's rival card however, the SanDisk card writes at a fast 15MBs, making it more suitable for HD camcorders and SLRs like the Nikon D80. It will ship in April for approximately $350, bundled with a MicroMate USB 2.0 reader.
Bidders in the auction for the 700MHz wireless space have reached the minimum bid necessary to require that a winner institutes open access on any wireless network they create, the US Federal Communications Commission has confirmed through its auction site. At least one bidder in the auction has pressed past the crucial $4.6 billion mark for the "C block" spectrum, with bids at the end of the 17th round of the auction just surpassing $4.7 billion. No end dates or bidding limits have been established for the auction, which is set to continue until bidding stops.
Prolific memory maker Kingston has upgraded its line of SDHC memory cards, which now includes a 16GB model. The SD4/16GB is the largest SDHC option from the company, and should theoretically be able to hold over four hours of six-megapixel video, or some 5,080 JPEG photos captured at an eight-megapixel resolution. Unlike Kingston's other SDHC options however, the 16GB card is strictly available at Class 4 speeds (4MBs+), whereas the 4 and 8GB cards can also be had in Class 2 and Class 6 editions. Buying an SD4/16GB costs $231.
Dell this morning followed through on its promise last week and began offering the XPS M1330 with Linux in the US. The system is the first XPS in the country to come preloaded with Ubuntu Linux and brings features that were not previously options with Dell's Linux systems, such as an LED-lit display and a slot-loading DVD burner.
Well-known pirated material site The Pirate Bay has been charged with its first clear copyright infringement case, according to reports. A combination of major movie labels and music studios, including EMI, Fox, Sony BMG, and Universal, accuse the Swedish-run site of profiting from linking to BitTorrents from pages with advertising; as much as $4 million US a year is generated through normal traffic, according to the Swedish prosecutor in the case, Hakan Roswall. Labels involved with the suit are demanding as much as a $188,000 fine for each of the four principal site operators and that computers they own be confiscated.
The MacBook Air's custom-made processor should soon be licensed for use by other PC builders, say claims by PC Advisor. A contact allegedly aware of Intel's plans expects at least two unnamed computer builders to use the special Core 2 Duo in systems to be released "soon." The technical details of the notebooks are not described, though the smaller packaging around the processor die is designed to allow smaller overall systems without sacrificing as much performance as the ultra-low voltage chips typically required for subnotebooks.
TiVo and CBS on Thursday announced a joint project that will let the TV broadcaster track viewing behavior for digital video recorders. Through TiVo's Stop||Watch service, CBS will have access to not only data from TiVo subscribers' viewing habits for full shows but also their likelihood of skipping ads and other behavior; the service can determine the delay between recording and playing timeshifted broadcasts, generate TV ratings, and track usage down to the second, according to the two companies.
Sigma at the PMA photo expo has committed to a release window for the DP1, its unusual crossover between compact cameras and digital SLRs. Now due sometime in spring, the final camera still maintains the 14-megapixel Foveon sensor that defines its shooting characteristics. The new three-layer silicon technology (also used in the SD14) captures each portion an RGB image in one pixel instead of three and allows the sensor to be several times larger than for other point-and-shoots this size; this provides both a major lift both to resolution as well as color response, Sigma says. The DP1 also comes with a custom-tailored 16.6mm f4 lens that can produce a shallow depth of field effect normally impossible with compact cameras.
Amazon today said it would acquire Audible in a share buyout deal worth roughly $300 million. The agreement effectively gives Amazon control of Audible's audiobook collection and is described as an effort to develop and expand the audiobook forrmat, which is largely dominated by the now-acquired company. The finished deal is expected to be approved sometime during the spring of this year.
IOGEAR continues to extend its wireless USB product line with the introduction of a CardBus-based WUSB peripheral for notebooks. Working with any certified WUSB device, IOGEAR's new offering is a certified Wireless USB CardBus HMA and works much like its USB dongle ($100) counterpart, but with a few advantages: it frees up USB slots and also decreases bandwidth over the USB bus, according to the report. Designed for older notebooks -- newer models usually have ExpressCard slots -- users can opt for the CardBus-device to work with external WUSB hubs, such as the recently introduced by Belkin. Pricing or availability were not noted in the report and IOGEAR's website has not been updated. [via EverythingUSB]
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