Yahoo challenges Google in mobile phone market

After falling behind rival Google in the online realm, Yahoo is looking to turn things around in the quickly growing mobile phone market.

The Internet company used the CTIA Entertainment & IT cellular show in San Francisco Wednesday to share a few announcements that it hopes will lay the groundwork for a successful expansion into mobile, including a new social communications service for the iPhone and an expanded development platform for developers.

It's still early yet in mobile, and the dollars at stake pale in comparison to online ad revenue. But Yahoo, which has been building up its mobile offerings for years, is intent on capturing the potential opportunity created by 3 billion mobile users worldwide.

"We want to create and enable a mobile ecosystem for billions of users," said Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life division. "We're turning everyone that uses voice today into a mobile data user."

Boerries said its oneConnect service, a social address service that marries a cell phone contacts list with social networks, is premiering on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The service, which is available now in the Apple App Store, allows users to pull their friends and contacts together into one application, enabling them to communicate via instant messaging, e-mail, text messaging or phone. The application also lets users get updates and check in on their friends across a variety of social-networking sites, from Facebook and MySpace to Bebo and Twitter.

Yahoo also is expanding a new development language to help developers build applications easily for mobile phones. Using a language called Blueprint, which Yahoo took five years to build, developers can create applications and Web sites at once that will run on a variety of operating systems and devices.

The applications can work through Yahoo's Go mobile information service, or they can be built directly for mobile phones that can handle them.

AT&T said Monday that Yahoo is being used as the default search engine on its MEdia Net portal. Yahoo's oneSearch service will allow customers to get news, weather updates, Flickr photos and online information from MEdia Net Portal.

Yahoo's moves are intended to keep pace with and exceed archrival Google. Google is developing its own mobile operating system called Android, which make its first appearance later this year with T-Mobile.

The online search leader also is reportedly close to securing a deal with Verizon Wireless to be its primary Web search provider. And it continues to offer mobile applications for a wide variety of mobile phone platforms, including a search tool made for BlackBerry phones, which was announced Wednesday.

So far, Google is enjoying a lead in mobile search similar to the one it has online. It commands 61.5 percent of the online search market compared with 20 percent for Yahoo, according to Nielsen Mobile and comScore.

But analysts said it's still early in the game, with ad revenue much smaller than online, although it's expected to jump in the years to come. That's why Yahoo is so intent on taking the fight to Google in mobile.

"This is a critical push for Yahoo so they don't cede that area as well to Google," said Roger Entner, an analyst with Nielsen IAG. "This is the new growth area. If you're not playing here, you can pack up and go home."

source

Waiting for the Zune Generation

On Wednesday, Adam Sohn, the head of public relations for Microsoft’s Zune division, told me: “Babies are born every day without an iPod. We will get there.”

That summarizes the challenge Zune faces from Apple — and Microsoft’s determination (at least for now) to meet it.

It’s hard enough trying to make a product that is more attractive, innovative, easy to use and cool than Apple does. But now many iPods are replacements by people who already have substantial music collections in iTunes. For those people, the choice is between buying an iPod that will simply work with all their music or investing the time and effort to try to convert everything into Zune’s formats.

No wonder that after two years in the music player business, Zune only has a 2 percent market share.

When the Microsoft delegation arrived last year to unveil the second generation of players, Chris Stephenson, Zune’s marketing head, said the company’s low market share in its first year was because it had only offered a hard-drive model at the high end of the market. With the addition of less expensive flash players, starting at $149. Mr. Stephenson said the company hoped to vault to No. 2 in the market, leaping past SanDisk.

“Fifteen percent [market share] would be great for us,” he said.

SanDisk still sells four times more music players than Microsoft does.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sohn dismissed SanDisk because most of its sales were for players that cost less than $100. Microsoft would rather add more features and sell players at higher price points, he said.

When Mr. Sohn got to the demo, I didn’t see anything in the third generation of Zunes that is going to shake up the market. Like Apple, it added capacity at its existing price points. It’s got a little trick to let you identify songs you hear listening to the FM radio and buy them from Zune’s music store.

Two years after introducing the only really groundbreaking feature on the Zune — its WiFi access — Microsoft finally will let users buy songs directly on the device using the WiFi. (Yes, Apple, which has had WiFi devices since the iPhone and iPod Touch, added wireless purchases last year.) And Microsoft has made a variety of tweaks to its PC software and to the social network it introduced last year.

I asked Mr. Sohn what the company’s research showed for why people actually bought the Zune. All these small-bore features, including the vaunted social network, weren’t on the list.

Some like the FM radio, he said. A geeky hard core likes the fact it can sync music with a computer over WiFi. And some video fans liked that the screen size of the hard-drive Zune was bigger than the iPod classic. He admitted that the new $229 starting price point for the iPod Touch, which has a larger screen yet, was going to cause some trouble in that corner of Zune’s tiny market.

Speaking of the Touch and the iPhone, I asked Mr. Sohn why Microsoft wasn’t adding more really innovative features. The evolution of music players into flexible handheld computers should play into Microsoft’s strengths as a maker of broad platforms.

Microsoft, Mr. Sohn said, is sticking to its initial conception that Zune is product that is devoted to music primarily and video secondarily. Microsoft’s entertainment and device unit, under the leadership of Robert Bach, tries to have much more focus and clarity than most other parts of the company. The Windows Mobile division, which Mr. Bach also oversees, makes software for smartphones, and one of these years will have an answer to the iPhone.

But even in music and video, it seems like Microsoft is missing the opportunity to make Zune a much more interesting platform. Most significantly, to my mind, is whether the devices can offer much more free content by the artful use of advertising. Unlike Apple, Microsoft has a big division devoted to advertising. The WiFi connections on all the Zune players would be ideal to stream ad-supported video and maybe music.

We’re working on it, Mr. Sohn told me. But last year J Allard, a top strategist for Mr. Bach, described an elaborate vision for Microsoft to be in the center of all media, none of which has come to fruition so far. Meanwhile, Apple continues to weave its way deeper and deeper into the music, video and now telephone business. And it has a shot at defining the next platform for handheld computing as well.

No wonder that Mr. Sohn is looking to this year’s crop of newborns as the real target market for Zune.

source

Hewlett-Packard unveils notebook PC that runs 24 hours on one charge

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest personal-computer maker, introduced a notebook PC that can run for as long as 24 hours on a single battery charge.

Customers would have to buy an optional battery, a special display and a so-called solid-state hard-disk drive to get the extended running time, Hewlett-Packard said. With those options, the EliteBook 6930p costs about $2,200. After an online discount, the price will be $1,816.

Hewlett-Packard has added new PCs over the last two months to capture consumer demand for notebooks and extend its lead over Dell Inc. The new notebook will compete with Dell's Latitude E6400, introduced in August, which can run for as long as 19 hours on a single charge.

The company's notebook sales rose 26% in the quarter ended July 31, while desktop revenue increased 6%. PCs account for a third of the company's revenue.

Customers wanting the 24-hour battery life will also have to download additional graphics and system software, HP said. The machine will be available in October.

A basic version of the PC costs $1,199, Hewlett-Packard spokesman Mike Hockey said. The additional battery costs $150, and the solid-state hard disk, which stores information on chips rather than a magnetic disk, is an extra $900.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, rose 86 cents to $45.74.

source

Smartphone shipments ease off the gas pedal

Smartphone sales slowed a bit in the second quarter amid a weak global economy, but Gartner thinks that's about to change.

The worldwide market for smartphones grew 15.7 percent in the second quarter, as vendors shipped a total of 32.2 million devices. That's pretty solid, but earlier this year the market was growing at a 60 percent clip. Blame a slowing economy around the world and the development of more sophisticated "enhanced phones" running Java or Qualcomm's BREW rather than true smartphone operating systems like Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Apple's OS X, according to Gartner.

Nokia is still the market leader by a huge margin, shipping nearly half of all smartphones sold in the world during the second quarter. The company is not growing nearly as fast as its rivals, however, and lost market share; second-place RIM increased its shipment totals by 126 percent to obtain 17.4 percent market share, and HTC grew its shipments 119 percent to edge out Sharp for third place.

Conspicuously absent from Gartner's top 5 was Apple, which shipped just 717,000 iPhones during the second quarter as it ran down the inventory of classic iPhones ahead of the July launch of the iPhone 3G. Apple should show up in next quarter's rankings, however, as the company sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs in just the first weekend it went on sale. Fujitsu's 1,071,490 units was good enough for fifth place for the entire second quarter.

North America is the fastest-growing region for smartphone sales by far, with shipments up 78.7 percent in the second quarter. This region accounts for just 25 percent of all smartphone sales, however, as our cousins in Europe and Asia got on the smartphone train much earlier. Western Europeans bought 29.3 percent more smartphones in the quarter, while Japanese customers actually bought 24 percent fewer phones than during the same period last year.

The picture should be brighter later in the year, Gartner said. "Wider availability of new touch smartphone models together with the global introduction of the iPhone 3G will help sales of smartphones return to stronger growth in the third quarter of 2008," analyst Roberta Cozza wrote in Gartner's press release.

Source

The Chrome is out of the bag: Google's browser arrives Tuesday

Here's the full announcement, from the Google blog:

A fresh take on the browser

9/01/2008 02:10:00 PM

At Google, we have a saying: "launch early and iterate." While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.

All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends -- all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.

We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others -- and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.

The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.

So check in again tomorrow to try Google Chrome for yourself. We'll post an update here as soon as it's ready.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director

source : http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html

Microsoft Launches New Shopping Site

Microsoft is working on a new shopping Web site for software, hardware, and peripherals that it plans to advertise in the Windows XP Start Menu and the Internet Explorer Web browser.

Called "Windows Marketplace," the Web site is slated to go live for U.S. Windows users by year's end, according to Microsoft, which plans to officially announce the online store on Monday at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto.

The Windows Marketplace will be a way for Microsoft partners to peddle their wares to the millions of Windows users, the Redmond, Washington-based software vendor says in a statement.

Providers that are expected to sell their products through the store include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Circuit City Stores, Buy.com, and Best Buy Company, according to Microsoft. Products that have gained a "Designed for Windows" logo will be easier to find on the Web store through a special search filter, the software maker says.

Built-In Links

Aside from advertising the online store in Windows, Microsoft plans to link to the site from its online properties. The link in Internet Explorer will be made through Windows XP Service Pack 2, which is expected out in the coming weeks. Also, the Start Menu link that currently points to the Windows Catalog will likely redirect to the Windows Marketplace in the future, a Microsoft spokesperson says.

The U.S. version of the Windows Marketplace will be maintained by online publishing company CNet Networks, which will provide product and pricing information for over 100,000 products. Software downloads will be offered through CNet's Download.com Web site, according to Microsoft.

Vendors who currently have a merchant relationship with CNet will be automatically included on the Windows Marketplace, as will products with that have been granted the designed for Windows logo, Microsoft said. Details on the relationship between Microsoft and CNet were not released.

Windows Marketplace is a U.S.-only initiative for now, however plans for international expansion are in the works, the spokesperson says.

source : www.pcworld.com

Internet Explorer 8 To Include 'Stealth' Privacy Mode

Microsoft's forthcoming Web browser will feature four tools that let users surf the Web anonymously

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has confirmed that it will add several new privacy features to its forthcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser that will allow users to cover their digital tracks while surfing the Web.

"Users should be in control of their information. That's at the core of privacy," wrote IE 8 program manager Andy Zeigler in a blog post Monday. Ziegler used the post to confirm that IE 8 will include four new privacy features when it ships later this year.

InPrivate Browsing will let users control whether IE 8 saves their browsing history, cookies, and other Internet data. InPrivate Blocking will inform users about sites that can track their browsing history, and will allow them to block such activity. InPrivate Subscriptions will let users choose which Web sites to subscribe to or block.

A fourth feature, Delete Browsing History, gives users control over their browsing history after visiting a Web site.

"Privacy has two aspects: disclosure and choice," wrote Zeigler. "Disclosure means informing users in plain language about the data collected about them and how it's used. Choice means putting users in control of their data and giving them tools to protect it."

Microsoft this summer tipped its hand on the features by applying for a trademark on the term InPrivate. The company's July 30 trademark application said the term refers to "computer programs for disabling the history of file caching features of a Web browser, and computer software for notifying a user of a Web browser when others are tracking Web use and for controlling the information others can access about such use."

Microsoft also applied for a trademark on the term Cleartracks, which it says refers to "computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the World Wide Web, and computer programs for deleting search history after accessing Web sites," according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.

The description is similar to that for IE 8's now-confirmed Delete Browsing History feature.

Many current Web browsers, including Explorer 7, leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs that can reveal a user's path across the Web. In the past, such information has been used by law enforcement officials investigating suspected criminal behavior, by employers keeping tabs on workers' browsing habits, and even by jealous spouses who suspect their partners of cheating or frequenting porn sites. IE 8's new feature could make it more difficult for interested parties to track such behavior.

Explorer 8 is expected to be available sometime this year. It's currently in beta testing.

source : www.informationweek.com

Microsoft Invests in Move Networks

Microsoft made an undisclosed investment in Move Networks, a company that supplies streaming video technology, in an attempt to boost its online video presence.

The companies already have a relationship, struck in March, that makes their Internet technologies compatible. Move Networks' customers like ABC and the CW Television Network that use Move's technology to stream video online can also use Microsoft's Silverlight to include interactive elements such as branding and navigation in the videos. Silverlight is Microsoft's browser plug-in and development runtime for adding multimedia and video to Web-based applications.

Both technologies are also being used to deliver Internet video coverage of the Democratic National Committee, currently happening in Denver, on the convention Web site.

In addition to the Microsoft investment, Move also said that it will support Windows Server-based encoding, Microsoft codecs and Silverlight Digital Rights Management.

The investment could help Microsoft better compete online with Flash, Adobe's dominant technology widely used across the Web by developers to build multimedia Internet applications. Silverlight, introduced last year, is Microsoft's response to Flash.

Other big-name investors backing Move through investments announced in April include Cisco and Comcast Interactive Media.

source : www.pcworld.com

Nvidia CEO Huang Outlines Smartphone Strategy In Battling Intel

The graphics chipmaker's mobile strategy revolves around the smartphone, which "will become the next personal computer," said CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at Nvidia's Nvision 2008 conference.

Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang believes the smartphone represents the "second personal computing revolution," and he has made the device a key target as the graphics chipmaker gears up to battle Intel in the mobile market.

Huang, who is also president and co-founder of Nvidia, met with reporters Monday on the inaugural day of Nvidia's Nvision 2008 conference in the company's hometown of San Jose, Calif. While Huang touched upon a number of topics, one focus was Nvidia's growing competition with Intel.

In the mobile arena, Nvidia has Tegra, an all-in-one integrated graphics system on a chip, and Intel has Atom, its smallest processor that was designed from the ground up for mobile devices.

Both products are capable of driving many different gadgets that tap the Internet, but the smartphone, which has entered the spotlight with the popularity of Apple's iPhone, is where Huang sees the real action.

"Our strategy with mobile is to completely focus on the smartphone," he said. "We believe that the smartphone will become the next personal computer. This is clearly going to be the second personal computer revolution."

In battling Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and others, such as Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM), Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM), and Samsung Electronics, Nvidia plans to align itself with VIA Technologies, which makes the Nano CPU. Combining Nano with Tegra, which includes a GeForce graphics processing unit, is part of Nvidia's plan to bring "world-class computing technology" to the smartphone.

"We think that computing needs to be far better on mobile devices," Huang said. "Today's devices are phone first, computing second. We think they need to be computing first, phone second."

Huang said optimizing Nvidia technology for the Nano is the "number one" priority for the graphics chipmaker in mobile computing. In addition, Nvidia plans to provide compatibility testing for software makers.

Nvidia isn't likely to stop with the Nano, however. Any chipset that Nvidia builds for Via's processor could also run with Atom, since both CPUs are x86. Therefore, it's possible that Nvidia could release a chipset compatible with the Atom in the near future.'

Besides mobile computing, Huang also had some comments about Intel (NSDQ: INTC)'s new graphics architecture codenamed Larrabee. Intel plans to release a Larrabee-based GPU for PCs in late 2009 or early 2010, and eventually take the technology into high-performance computing within vertical industries, such as oil and gas, medical imaging, and scientific research. All of those areas are major markets for Nvidia's GPUs.

But Huang said no one can say for sure whether Larrabee will become a threat. "You and I don't know what Larrabee is because Larrabee hasn't shipped," he said.

What is known about Larrabee was revealed in a research paper Intel presented at the Siggraph show in Los Angeles this month. According to the paper, Larrabee will be based on an array of multiple x86 core processors. Intel is betting that the consistency of its x86 architecture in graphics and general-purpose computing will simplify development on the platform, and therefore be more attractive to software makers.

Huang, however, said that kind of consistency doesn't matter. "That part of it (Larrabee) is a bit of an abstraction, a bit of a smokescreen," he said.

While x86 remains the dominant platform for the PC, ARM, a 32-bit RISC processor architecture, is widely used in mobile electronics; andIBM (NYSE: IBM)'s PowerPC is strong in the videogame industry as the platform for the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation. To be successful, a graphics processor has to support all computing environments, Huang said.

"The Internet doesn't run on the x86," he said.

The first Larrabee chips will have more than a dozen cores on a single silicon chip, far fewer than graphics processors from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. Nvidia is shipping GPUs with more than 200 cores today, and AMD is planning a high-end ATI graphics chip this year with more than 500 cores.

Huang promised that when the first Larrabee products ship, Nvidia will have extended its lead in graphics technology even further. "Intel is still talking about our past," he said. "They need to talk about our present and our future."

In 1980, the entire graphics market totaled $1 billion. Today, the main hardware and software alone is a $60 billion market, according to market researcher Jon Peddie. As of the second quarter of 2008, Intel controlled an estimated 47.3% share of the overall graphics market, Nvidia held 31.4%, and AMD 18.1%.

Before meeting with reporters, Huang gave the opening keynote of Nvision, trotting out a number of companies that depend on graphics processors to power their software.

One such company was RTT, whose design software is used to build 3D virtual models of custom-made Lamborghini automobiles. Another was Korea-based Nurien, which showed off its online virtual world. Other companies demonstrated products in the areas of TV graphics, multi-touch computing, and videogames.

Huang said Nvidia hopes to build Nvision into a showcase for companies building state-of-the-art products on top of the GPU, rather than a show for announcing new GPUs or other graphics hardware. "We need to create an industry event for visual computing that goes beyond the internal core," Huang said.

source : www.informationweek.com

Toshiba's XDE DVD Player: A Threat to Blu-ray?

What exactly is Toshiba thinking? Not too long ago, the company lost the high-def battle, shutting down its HD DVD business. Sony's Blu-ray was declared the "winner," and everyone seemed to accept that standard DVD was on a slow, steady decline. What we didn't realize back in January was that Toshiba may have been down but it certainly wasn't out of the DVD mix. Yes, Toshiba's now in the deep end of the pool, dog-paddling like crazy with a brand-new DVD player technology, trying to prove that the DVD standard can stay afloat indefinitely.

Most people I've spoken to dismiss Toshiba's new XDE (eXtended Detail Enhancement) high-def technology as fakery and a minor speed bump in the road to Blu-ray disc and video download dominance. They're probably right.

On the other hand, these upscaling, image-enhancing hybrid players will, at $149, reportedly cost hundreds less than the current crop of Blu-ray players, and they promise to enhance the consumer's current DVD collection. According to Toshiba, the technology sharpens the contrast, improves colors, and will "breathe new life into your DVDs."

Suddenly, Toshiba is a very savvy (dare I say cunning?) company with a potential consumer electronics hit on its hands.

As I've mentioned before, Blu-ray players are still way too expensive, and Sony is still struggling to explain to consumers why it's a must-have technology. What's more, IP-based Video on Demand (VoD) is surging, thanks to set-top players from Roku and Apple and movie downloads via the Sony PS3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360. Consequently, VoD could become a relevant home DVD competitor in the next few years. And that's why Sony should be worried about Toshiba's latest DVD technology.

Consumers, on the whole not the most discerning bunch when it comes to quality, could very well be charmed by Toshiba's promises of 1080p images and enhanced color and image quality from their existing DVD collection. For consumers it's a win-win situation. They get high-def at a sub-$200 price that should look good on any real HDTV set, and they save even more money by not having to replace their DVD collection.

The X-factor here, naturally, might be the movie studios. If they stop making standard DVDs in favor of Blu-ray only, it's game over for Toshiba and XDE. On the other hand, Blu-ray's slow rise leaves the door open for crazy ideas like this. According to a recent report by Futuresource Consulting, Blu-ray media accounts for roughly 5 to 6 percent of all DVD purchases. Futuresource projects that U.S. consumers will buy some 45 million Blu-ray discs by the end of this year, which is a 400 percent increase over last year. It sure sounds as if Blu-ray is on the road to dominance. However, when a title sells well, the Blu-ray sales still account for only about 10 to 12 percent of total sales. That's good growth but not enough for Sony and other Blu-ray partners to bury consumer appetite for standard DVDs and DVD players.

The other day, Executive Editor and Reviews Czar Dan Costa suggested to me that Toshiba should simply give up this nonsense and admit defeat. Sure, Toshiba lost the high-def war, but the company understands the opportunity that exists to attract consumers who own massive DVD libraries and still don't comprehend why they should pay almost $500 for a player that needs new discs to reach its full potential. Plus, Toshiba gets to make Sony's life a little bit harder. I'm sure Toshiba would never admit to this, but if these XDE players sell even marginally well, they'll exist as a thorn in Sony's side and be one more reason why people might not switch to Blu-ray. In fact, it may buy consumers enough time to skip Blu-ray altogether and jump all the way to VoD boxes, which, by then, should be offering new-release HD videos. Toshiba will surely enjoy that.

Realistically, consumers may prove me wrong and call out XDE for what it is—a marketing ploy wrapped around an itty-bitty technology innovation. Still, no matter the outcome, it's fun to watch Toshiba splashing around in the DVD pool.

source : www.pcmag.com

Microsoft Sends Up Trial Balloons for Windows 7

Windows Vista hasn't fared so well since its debut. Its generally low reputation among customers has led one Forrester analyst to dub Microsoft's latest OS "the New Coke of tech," while some studies have suggested that nearly a third of customers who buy a PC with Vista pre-installed may actually be downgrading those machines to XP.

Still other customers seem to wish the whole thing will just go away. They don't want to hear about Vista at all -- they'd rather hear about Windows 7, the upcoming OS from Microsoft that will be Vista's successor. And given the dismal consumer reaction to its latest attempts to market Vista, Microsoft seems willing to oblige. The sketchy early reports of Windows 7 have lately grown into a steady trickle of hints and rumors. The catch is, not all of it sounds particularly encouraging.

Perhaps because of the beatings it so often receives from the press, Microsoft seems to want you to get your Windows 7 news from the horse's mouth as much as possible. To that end, the Windows team has launched a new blog to chronicle the Windows 7 engineering efforts in detail. Senior Windows 7 product managers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky promise to "post, comment, and participate" regularly.

Among the factoids revealed in the blog so far: The workforce tasked with assembling the forthcoming OS is immense, and it's dense with middle managers. As many as 2,000 developers may be involved, according to reports. That sounds like a truly Herculean project-management undertaking -- and indeed, if the figures quoted in the Windows 7 blog are to be believed, Microsoft has staffed up with one manager for every four developers. It's enough to make one wonder how Windows 7 will avoid the implementation failures and missed deadlines that plagued Vista's launch.

The engineering blog isn't the only evidence of Microsoft's recent lip-loosening, either. Elsewhere this week we learned even more interesting information. We've known for a while now that Windows 7 is expected to build on the Vista code base, rather than reinventing any substantial portion of the Windows kernel. As it turns out, however, the next version of Windows may be even closer to the current one than we expect.

According to Microsoft spokespeople, the server version of Windows 7 will be considered a minor update, rather than a high-profile new product. In fact, it's expected to ship under the name Windows Server 2008 R2 -- a designation that suggests it will offer few features that aren't already available in the current shipping version of Microsoft's server OS.

As tantalizing as these tidbits of information may be, however, hard facts about Windows 7 remain scarce. At this stage, any talk about the forthcoming product counts as little more than free marketing. As long as we all keep talking about Windows in some form or another, the less likely we are to jump ship to Mac OS X or (heaven forbid) Linux.

According to Microsoft, however, developers can expect to get their first in-depth look at the new OS at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) conference in October, and further information will be revealed at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week. Until then, expect the rumor mill to remain in full force.

source : www.pcworld.com

Cheaper Sony PlayStation 3 Arrives in US Next Month

Sony Computer Entertainment America Announces New 40GB Playstation(R)3 (PS3(TM)) Configuration and Price Reduction Of Current 80GB Model

New 40GB Model to be Available in North America on November 2nd for $399;
Effective Immediately, 80GB PS3 to be Priced at $499

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (SCEA) today announced plans to introduce a new 40GB model of its PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system.

Beginning November 2nd, to further enhance the HD entertainment experience, the new 40GB PS3 model will come bundled with the blockbuster movie Spider-Man(TM) 3 Blu-ray Disc(TM) (BD) from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and will be available in North America for a suggested retail price of $399 (USD/CND). The company also announced that effective immediately, the current 80GB PS3 model will be available in North America for $499 (USD/CND), $100 below the original launch price.

"We're pleased to offer the consumer a lower price point without sacrificing the core technology components that make PS3 the most advanced high-definition entertainment system available. Every PS3 comes with a Blu-ray drive, HDMI output, an integrated Wi-Fi connection, Cell Broadband
Engine and a built-in hard-drive," said Jack Tretton, President and CEO, SCEA.

"This holiday season we'll be able to offer attractive retail pricing with a broad portfolio of outstanding games including Ratchet & Clank(R) Future: Tools of Destruction(TM), THE EYE OF JUDGMENT(TM), Uncharted: Drake's Fortune(TM), Heavenly Sword(TM), Call of Duty(R) 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's
Creed(TM), Haze(TM) and RockBand(TM)."

The new 40GB PS3 will no longer play PlayStation(R)2 titles, reflecting the availability of a more extensive line-up of PS3 specific titles. Consumers looking for backwards compatibility can take advantage of the limited PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility of the 80GB PS3.

PLAYSTATION(R)3 40GB Specification

Product name PLAYSTATION(R)3
CPU Cell Broadband Engine(TM) (Cell/B.E.)
GPU RSX(TM)
Sound Dolby 5.1ch, DTS 5.1ch , LPCM 7.1ch, AAC,
others *1 *2
Memory 256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
HDD 2.5" Serial ATA 40GB
I/O USB 2.0 x2
Communication Ethernet X1 (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)
IEEE 802.11 b/g Included
Bluetooth 2.0 Included
(EDR)
Wireless controller (Bluetooth) Included
AV Output Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI OUT x1 *3
AV MULTI OUT x1
DIGITAL OUT x1
(OPTICAL)
BD/DVD/CD Maximum Read Speed BD 2x (BD-ROM)
Drive DVD 8x (DVD-ROM)
(Read Only) CD 24x (CD-ROM)
Dimensions Approximately 12.75in(W) x 3.86in (H) x
10.8in (D)
Weight Approximately 11 lbs

*1 A device compatible with Linear PCM 7.1 Ch. is required to output 7.1
Ch. audio, supported by Dolby TrueHD or a similar format, from the HDMI
OUT connector.
*2 This system does not support output from the DTS-HD 7.1 Ch. DTS-HD 7.1
Ch. audio is output from a 5.1 or lower channel.
*3 "Deep Color" and "x.v.Color (xvYCC)" defined by HDMI ver1.3a are
supported.

source : http://gizmodo.com/

Next-Generation Palm Treo Sighted

Palm accidentally uploaded a presentation about the Palm Treo 850 -- aka Treo Pro -- to a public Palm Web site, where it was spotted by bloggers and posted just about everywhere. It is probably the best looking Treo ever. But is that really saying all that much?

It sure looks nice. You can see pictures of it here and here. Looks to have either a black or gun-metal finish to it, with nice sharp lines and clean buttons. My one issue is that it still looks chubby. Palm Treos, even the latest 800w, are a lot thicker than the competition. Motorola, Samsung, Apple, and even RIM seem to know how to make thinner smartphones.

Other details that can be discerned from the presentation are that it will have a full 3.5 mm headset jack for headphones, Wi-Fi, and, of course, a touch screen, which all Palms have. It looks like it will run the Windows Mobile 6.1 platform and will have a micro-USB jack for transferring data.

When this device will launch is unknown, but it will be with a carrier such as T-Mobile or AT&T, because the first version of it will have GSM/UMTS radios.

This phone is a nice improvement for Palm in the looks department. Since the next generation of Palm's own operating system isn't going to be available for a while, Palm needs to do its best with Windows Mobile phones if it is to remain relevant in the competitive smartphone market.

source : www.informationweek.com