Posts Tagged ‘gadgets’

AMD reveals Fusion CPU+GPU, to challege Intel in laptops

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

SAN FRANCISCO—The “Llano” processor that AMD described today in an ISSCC session is not a CPU, and it’s not a GPU—instead, it’s a hybrid design that the chipmaker is calling an “application processor unit,” or APU. Whatever you call it, it could well give Intel a run for its money in the laptop market, by combining a full DX11-compatible GPU with four out-of-order CPU cores on a single, 32nm processor die. Details on the highly parallel vector hardware—the “GPU” part of the device—have yet to be disclosed, but AMD is focusing today’s revelations on the CPU part of the design. In a nutshell, AMD has taken the “STARS” core that’s used in their current 45nm offerings, shrunk it to a new 32nm SOI high-K process, and added new power gating and dynamic power optimization capabilities to it. Each out-of-order core has a bit under 35 million transistors, and a 1MB L2 cache that’s not included in that number. AMD is targeting sub-3GHz operation, and a power consumption range of 2.5 to 25 watts.

Amazon puts out one e-book pricing fire as others flare up

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Just as it looked like Amazon was about to achieve an iTunes-style lock on the e-book marketplace, the impending arrival of Apple’s iPad seems to have emboldened book publishers. After a pricing dispute caused all Macmillan titles to disappear off Amazon’s virtual shelves , other publishers joined the pricing revolt , demanding greater flexibility in setting prices on their wares. According to the Wall Street Journal , Amazon has apparently settled the first of these disputes by capitulating. According to the Journal’s report, Amazon will give up on its $9.99 pricing target for e-books, and allow Macmillan greater flexibility to set the rates for its content. The new prices may be as much as $5.00 higher. Although Amazon had announced that it had no choice but to concede given what it termed Macmillan’s “monopoly” over its content, the publisher’s books were slow to reappear in the retailer’s site. That apparently changed over the weekend following a full settlement of the dispute on Friday. Unfortunately for Amazon, it appears that Macmillan will be the first of many publishers that seek to renegotiate terms, as at least two others (Harper Collins and Hachette) have voiced their intention of doing so. The trigger for the sudden uprising, according to nearly every report on the  matter, is the impending arrival of Apple’s iPad, as Apple has negotiated deals that allow publishers to retain significant control over e-book prices. As we noted in our earlier coverage, this is a complete role reversal compared to the dispute over downloadable music pricing. For Amazon, it all has to be a major disappointment. After remaining relatively circumspect about Kindle sales, the company allowed itself a bit of back-patting after both hardware and e-book sales boomed over the holidays. Its primary competitor, Sony, appeared to be struggling in comparison, and newcomers to the e-book reader market appeared to have a bad case of first-generation hardware blues, something that Amazon had already put in its past. But the mere threat of Apple releasing a competing product seems to have encouraged Amazon’s key suppliers (the publishers) to think different.

Hacker training site reappears after takedown by China

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Chinese authorities are making a cursory effort to crack down on hackers as of late, and have shut down hacker training website Black Hawk Safety Net. According to state-run news organization Xinhua , police in the Hubei Province made three arrests associated with the massive recruiting site and have confiscated numerous assets, including cash, servers, and a Honda Accord. With all eyes on China thanks to the Great Google Scandal of 2010 , a move like this may calm fears that China is allowing itself to become a Wild West of cybercriminals. The problem is that Black Hawk already has a contingency plan in place and may be back sooner than later. Police allege Black Hawk Safety Net is responsible for distributing hacking tools, viruses, and malware for members to use, and say that it is among the largest—if not the largest—of such sites in the country. According to Xinhua, the site has more than 12,000 VIP members plus 170,000 free members, and has collected over 7 million yuan (just over US$1 million at today’s conversion rates) in membership fees. When police raided the site, they confiscated nine servers, five computers, and froze some 1.7 million yuan in cash, though the paper reported that this was part of a long-term effort to investigate the site.

Microsoft investigating disappearing music from Zune Pass

// February 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

According to a post on the Zune Forums , owners of the Zune Pass are having a bit of trouble accessing the music they’re paying for with their subscription, as first reported by Engadget . In less than two weeks, the thread in question has passed 50 replies as users complain and list what they can no longer access: specific songs, entire albums, or even everything produced by an artist. The sixth reply in the thread is thankfully one from a Microsoft representative. “Hey all—we’re hearing you! We are investigating your reported missing albums indicated in this post—and will come back to you as soon as we understand why they’re missing,” Michelle A. of the Zune Product Team writes. “It is extremely helpful that you advise the album title and artist names to us, so that we can include them into our investigation.” As a result, the rest of the thread is filled with lists of missing tracks. Apart from the initial response, Microsoft has not posted an explanation of what has gone wrong or how it plans to fix the issue. Customers affected are confused and annoyed as they are constantly seeing errors when trying to play parts of their music collection. The only way users can still access missing songs is if they previously saved them (Zune Pass subscribers get to choose 10 songs each month to keep ). Microsoft’s customer service is pointing to record labels pulling music, but the reports from users suggests there’s no pattern in the content that is being pulled. We will let you know when Microsoft has an explanation and/or a solution to this issue.

Aliens vs. Predator demo shows promise, fails to sell game

// February 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Aliens vs Predator may very well be a good game, but the demo doesn’t do much to sell it. The demo is multiplayer-only and only showcases one map and one game mode: deathmatch. The servers are public and trying to find a game is an exercise in frustration. In over two hours spent with the PlayStation 3 version of the demo (it’s also available on the 360 and PC) I managed to play a scant three games. And one of those got disconnected. Ben had similar issues when trying to connect to the PC version.

Publishers continue pummeling Amazon over e-book prices

// February 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Amazon’s $9.99 e-book price point may be a rarity as more book publishers declare that they’ll set their own prices for books, with the seller taking a standard 30 percent cut. Another major publisher has decided to move to what’s referred to as the “agency model” while others are hinting that they, too, are about to force the new model on Amazon. Hachette has become the latest publisher to announce that it was done with what it calls the artificially depressed e-book prices imposed by Amazon. In an e-mail to its employees, CEO David Young extolled the virtues of the agency model, noting that it “allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors’ works,” according to an excerpt posted by Media Bistro . “Without this investment in our authors, the diversity of books available to consumers will contract, as will the diversity of retailers, and our literary culture will suffer.”

Microsoft drops Zune HD prices without explanation

// February 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Microsoft this week slashed $20 off both versions of the Zune HD, as first spotted by Gdgt . It seems this is the source of a mini price war that customers have been noticing over the past couple of days. When the device first debuted, the 16GB version sold for $220 and the 32GB version went for $290. A few retailers have taken Microsoft’s $20 price cut as an opportunity to cut the price down even lower. Here are the prices from a few online retailers:   16GB 32GB Microsoft $200 $270 Best Buy $200 $270 Circuit City $190 $250 Newegg $190 $250 Amazon $190 $250 Buy.com $189 $254 Speculation is rampant on why Microsoft chose this week for the price cuts (as opposed to, say, a few weeks before the 2009 holiday shopping season). It’s possible that Microsoft has adjusted the prices in anticipation of a 64GB version, which has been rumored to be coming for many months , even before the Zune HD launched. The even-more-expensive-by-comparison iPod Touch has had a 64GB version for five months so Microsoft really has no excuse for releasing one and undercutting Apple again. Another possibility to consider is that Microsoft has a new Zune product up its sleeves, or up someone else’s sleeves, that is coming sooner than previously expected . In two weeks, Microsoft is set to unveil Windows Mobile 7 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We know that Zune will play a role in Windows Mobile’s big day, but nobody is sure to what extent. Rumors range from a Zune phone completely designed and developed by Microsoft (think Zune HD plus phone capabilities, iPhone style), to multiple Windows phones with Zune media services preloaded. In either case, we would not be surprised if the device(s) sell(s) for just above the new prices for the Zune HD.

Sling reduces 3G bandwidth use enough to make AT&T happy

// February 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

After stripping SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone of its 3G streaming capabilities last year, AT&T has changed course and “approved” a version of the app with 3G streaming for sale in the App Store. Key to the reversal were changes that Sling Media made to make bandwidth use more efficient over 3G connections. It took almost a year and a half for Sling to bring SlingPlayer Mobile to the App Store, and many users were disappointed when the app arrived without 3G streaming capabilities. AT&T cited a clause in its terms of service that prohibited “redirecting a TV signal to a personal computer,” noting that it considered the iPhone a personal computer.

Sega reveals 2D Sonic the Hedgehog 4, coming this summer

// February 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Sega has finally taken the wraps off of the not-so-mysterious Project Needlemouse , and it turns out it’s just what everyone was hoping for: a return to classic 2D Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay. The game will officially be known as Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 and will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and WiiWare this summer. The announcement, which was exclusive to Gamespot , also revealed a few details about the game itself. Sega is positioning it as a direct sequel to Sonic & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis, originally released back in 1994, and will feature familiar gameplay mechanics like the spin dash and power sneakers. It will also incorporate leaderboards and, at least in the case of the PS3 and Wii versions, motion controls. Little else was revealed about the game, though Sega did launch a website for the title, which features several countdowns, so we should be seeing more information over the next few weeks. Sonic fans have been burned many times in the past, so it’s hard to get too excited until we actually play the game. But this looks like it could be the real thing. Let’s just hope there is a distinct lack of werehogs .

What we’d do (in a perfect world) to fix the PSP Go

// February 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

There is a rumor making its way around the gaming blogs that Sony is planning on “relaunching” the PSP Go . Rumors come and go, and this is an admittedly shaky one, but it’s an interesting idea. The PSP Go has all but disappeared from the world of gaming. It exists, you can buy one in stores, but we have yet to hear any sales numbers. The system is rarely discussed. If people are buzzing about a possible relaunch, does that mean the original launch was a failure? Until we see some hard data one way or the other, we’ll likely never know. If we do see a new strategy from the corporate level for the device, on the other hand, that’s pretty compelling evidence that the original product plan didn’t work as well Sony had hoped. We  rather notoriously  didn’t like the original product. So let’s give Sony some free advice and take a look at what could be done for the hardware/strategy combo that would make the PSP Go a hit.

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