Nokia tests Wi-Fi Internet mobile calls

Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, has started its first tests of a technology that allows users to roam seamlessly between phone networks and local wireless hot spots such as Wi-Fi. Fifty families in Oulu near the polar circle in northern Finland will test the technology over the next two months, Nokia said on Thursday.

Mobile subscribers with handsets enabled for so-called unlicensed mobile access, or UMA, can make calls over the Internet when they are in range of an unlicensed wireless network such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. When they move out of range, the connection will automatically revert to a GSM, GPRS or UMTS mobile phone network.

The technology lets carriers add coverage, for example in remote areas, at low cost with Wi-Fi hot spots instead of having to build expensive base stations. It could also encourage customers to use mobile phones at home instead of having landline connections, if they have Wi-Fi at home.

Need for Speed: AMD 4X4 vs. Intel Core 2 Duo

Need for Speed: AMD 4X4 vs. Intel Core 2 Duo AMD’s supremacy in the processors area seems to have found a dramatic end, after two years of flourishing dominance and positive reviews for the Athlon and Opteron series. Now it’s Intel’s turn to lead the performance.

Up until now AMD managed to steal the crown for the best processor from Santa Clara-based Intel, with its successful 64-bit Athlon series (for desktop) and Opteron series (for servers). AMD achieved such performance on 32-bit operating systems that even Intel itself had to license from AMD the technology they used, on Athlon and Opteron, and later integrated it in Pentiums under the name EMT64. Although native 64-bit OS are already on the market (like Windows XP 64-bit or Linux 64-bit) the lack of drivers and other software applications specially designed for them have determined users to stick to Windows 32 OS, also because of the superior performance that AMD registered on 32-bit using 64-bit processors.

Nortel Team on Unified Communications, Microsoft

July 24, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. and Nortel Networks Corp. last week announced a broad agreement to develop and market unified communications technology, saying that their Innovative Communications Alliance should begin releasing products next year as part of a road map laid out by Microsoft in June.

At that time, Microsoft said it would team up with vendors such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Motorola Inc. and Siemens AG on unified communications initiatives. But Microsoft and Nortel detailed a more expansive set of plans, including the eventual development by Nortel of a full suite of networking hardware and software that can work with Office.

Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski predicted during a jointly held teleconference that the alliance will generate about $1 billion in added revenue for the struggling company over the next few years.

Mixed Reaction

But Nortel users were mixed on whether they think the deal with Microsoft will give the Brampton, Ontario-based vendor a big boost in its efforts to rebound from a series of losses, financial restatements and management changes.

Victor Bohnert, executive director of International Nortel Networks Users Association Inc. (INNUA) in Chicago, said the alliance should help Nortel re-establish its reputation as a market leader. "This represents two powerhouses coming together, and I don't think there's too much of a downside to it," he said.

A Microsoft and Nortel collaboration will be a good thing for IT shops if it enables them to do less software integration in-house, said Jason Delp, president of the Pittsburgh-Western Allegheny Meridian Users Group, which is aligned with INNUA.

Delp is on the IT staff at Coventry Health Care Inc., a managed care provider and insurer in Bethesda, Md., that uses Windows, Microsoft's Office Communicator software and a Nortel network. "There's always the possibility that some Nortel users who are Microsoft haters won't like this alliance," he said. "But you have to face it that from the corporate perspective, the trend is toward Microsoft applications."

Nonetheless, Delp said he isn't convinced that working with Microsoft will help Nortel much. "After all its problems, Nortel is still in business, but who knows for how long," he said. "They still have an uphill battle.

"I wouldn't say that I would drink the Microsoft Kool-Aid just because we have Nortel already," said Andy Rebar, an IT staffer at Fujifilm Sericol USA Inc. in Kansas City, Kan. "We'd have to look at the benefits and weigh the ins and outs." Rebar is president of INNUA's Heart of America chapter.

Bill Lesieur, an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc. in Hampton, N.H., said Microsoft and Nortel "will be pitted against the well-established Cisco-IBM duo in delivering IP telephony and unified communications."

The open question is how well Microsoft and Nortel will work together, said Forrester Research Inc. analyst Rob Whiteley. "It needs to be a fluid operation," he said, "or their customers will go to Cisco."

The ZUNE is rising

As you all know already, Microsoft finally confirmed their long rumored plans to launch an iPod killer by the end of this year (more precisely, sometime around Christmas). But are they really going to kill it?Let’s think of the facts we are facing: first of all, Zune is meant to be an iPod killer. So there is one insurmountable…catch that Microsoft is not yet ready to deal with: even the nick-name points to the dominant rival (Zune as “the iPod killer”). Microsoft is probably intending to remove as much as possible the iPod from customers mind but even before its official “birth” Zune is associated with it.

Despite the grim and threatening nick-name, Zune is seen as a competitor for “the king” not as a stand-alone product, with its unique features and advantages.That means that when a customer wants to buy a Redmond-manufactured MP3 player (or whatever they are readying, but we’ll talk about that later) they are going to make at least one comparison: is it or is it not better than the iPod? And do you think Microsoft officials are going to be happy about that?Allow me to remind you another “classical” example: Xbox vs. PS2. In 2001, when they launched the first edition of Xbox, both customers and analysts saw it like a normal entry for Microsoft into the increasingly big gaming market.

No one thought Xbox would be THE “PlayStation killer”, probably because Sony already had a few strong rivals like Nintendo or SEGA.But this is not the case with iPod. Apple’s product has become a mass phenomenon and, accompanied by the music download service iTunes, it dominates the digital-sound world and it dictates the price. And who dictates the price also the lion’s share, wouldn’t you agree? OTHER HALF..

Vista Version Beta 2 on the Run

Microsoft on released another Vista Beta 2 build to address some performance issues with the code and device driver incompatibilities. Vista Beta 2 Build 5472 was made available to participants in the Windows Vista Technical Beta program, select Technology Adoption Program customers and MSDN subscribers, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft said it remains on target to ship the first release candidate of Windows Vista, RC1, by the end of this quarter. Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows client marketing at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said at last week's Velocity 2006 partner conference that the new build will hog fewer resources and be available within a few days.

Build 5472 is another interim beta release since Vista Beta 2 was announced at Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in May. Beta 2 was made available broadly in June. The Window Vista Enterprise Edition is set to ship to volume licensed customers in November. All other Vista business and consumer editions will be available to the broad channel and consumers in January.

Microsoft said the latest build will help application vendors and device driver developers working on products for Vista. Some partners are unfazed by the latest development in the Vista Beta 2 code, which comes four months before the software is expected to ship. "We've been working with Vista and Office 2007 since beta 1, as part of the midmarket Technology Adoption Program for both products.

There are always glitches and issues with beta software. That's the point of beta testing, after all," said Neil Rosenberg, CEO of Quality Technology Solutions, Morris Plaines, N.J. "But I think both products are going to be strong when released," Rosenberg said. "Vista promises a much cleaner, more intuitive user xperience and major security and mobility improvements."

The Portégé® M400 Tablet PC

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Nintendo Wii Coming This Summer?

Pricing has not been formally announced for the U.S. market, but Nintendo's Wii is expected to retail under $250. The two editions of the PlayStation 3, in contrast, will sell for $499 and $599, while the Xbox 360 is expected to continue selling for $299 and $399.

Microsoft Singing Its Own iTune =A whole new POD=

The software giant is poised to take on Apple with a music service and MP3 player all its own, abandoning its partner-oriented strategy.
In mid-June, Jonathan Sasse, president of digital-music-player maker iRiver America, was making the rounds with the press, talking up his latest gizmo, the clix. His message was that this music player, unlike so many other iPod wannabes, had a chance to hit it big and maybe even take some business from digital music kingpin Apple Computer (AAPL).

Microsoft zazzels towards ODF

In a tacit acknowledgment of the OpenDocument Format's (ODF) increased momentum, Microsoft Corp. announced today that it will back an open-source project to create software allowing Microsoft Office users to open and save files in ODF. The project, to be hosted on Sourceforge.net, will be led by three independent software vendors funded by Microsoft and is open to all developers ... The goal is a free plug-in that allows users to natively save files in ODF within Office, as well as convert files in Office 2007's OpenXML format to ODF and back. The Word plug-in is expected by December, with similar plug-ins for Excel and PowerPoint expected in 2007 ... Until now, Microsoft has publicly declined to make OpenXML compatible with ODF, saying any such move would stifle its own innovation. But ... the company had been discussing that option with government customers for months. Besides bankrolling the project, Microsoft will provide only technical assistance.

Google joins Xerox as a verb!!!!

Though you may have been "googling" people for years, the verb you were using was technically slang, until recently. In fact, many regularly used tech words are just now getting the official stamp of approval from English-language dictionaries. On Thursday, Merriam-Webster announced its latest update, and the new science and technology words added to the venerable dictionary include agritourism, biodiesel, mouse potato, ringtone and spyware.

And google is defined as a transitive verb meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web." While the entry retains capitalization in explaining the word's etymology--"Google, trademark for a search engine"--the verb google is lowercase.
"A noun turns into a verb very often. Google is a unique case. Because they have achieved so much prominence in the world of search, people have been using the word google as a generic verb now. Our main aim is to respond to the use of the language that we see. We consider ourselves very respectful of trademark. That (google as a lowercase verb) is really a lexicographical judgment based on the evidence that was analyzed," Thomas Pitoniak, the associate editor and composition manager for Merriam-Webster, told CNET News.com.

Apple polishing But will $899 iMac teach school competitors a lesson?

Summer is in full swing, but Apple Computer Inc. is ready to go back to school after it introduced an $899 iMac aimed at students, teachers and schools Wednesday.
The discounted iMac marks the Cupertino company's renewed push at the education market. It also signals the end of its eMac line, along with the end of cathode-ray tube monitors at Apple.
Apple has long had a history in the education market, outfitting classrooms with Macintosh computers. But for several years its market share has fallen as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and others began aggressively selling cheap PCs to schools. More recently, its role in education has been overshadowed by its ubiquitous iPod digital music players.
Now, as Apple completes its move to Intel-based Macs and builds on the popularity of the iPod, it is also offering a flat-screen 17-inch iMac for the education crowd.
"Apple is not going to give up (the educational market) without a fight," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies. The new iMac "helps them get back some of the market share lost to the PC players."
The iMac for students and teachers is virtually the same as the 17-inch Intel-based iMac being sold in stores, with a built-in Webcam and iLife software such as iPhoto for digital photo editing. The regular iMac, however, costs $1,299, instead of $899, and it has a larger hard drive and additional features such as DVD burning.
The education-configured iMac replaces the eMac, which came with a bulky cathode-ray tube monitor. The new iMac for schools shows "a rededication to the education market," said Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC. "The eMac looked like an antiquated system."
But now that Apple can manufacture the iMac more cheaply, it can afford to discount it to schools, Shim said. "I think they've always been dedicated to the education market, but there are certain business realities that limited them to what they could offer," he said.
During the late 1990s, Apple's dominance in education was challenged by PC makers, which sold computers to schools at a heavy discount. Including both laptop and desktop computers, Apple now ranks No. 2 in the education market, trailing Dell and slightly ahead of HP, according to IDC.
A separate study by Quality Education Data, a Scholastic company, found that 98 percent of U.S. K-12 school districts reported owning Windows PCs while 42 percent reported owning Macs during the 2004-2005 school year. Overall, the company's National Technology Assessment said that Windows PCs made up 82 percent of all computers owned by U.S. school districts while Macs accounted for 17 percent.
Apple is "definitely putting the pedal to the metal in the education market," said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. "It's been lost in the noise of the iPod, but the education market has always been important for Apple."
Apple began transitioning to Intel-based Macs at the beginning of the year. It also developed software, which is still being tweaked, that allows Microsoft Windows XP to run on the Mac. And it has been aggressively running advertisements pitting the Mac against the PC.
School administrators have expressed a renewed interest in Macs because it has become so expensive to fix PCs infected by viruses, spyware and other malware, said Rik Myslewski, editor in chief of MacAddict magazine.
"I think they took their eyes off the prize for a while," Myslewski said about Apple in the education market. "But now, with PCs losing a lot of their luster, a lot of administrators are saying, 'We have to stop this (worms and spyware).' Even major companies are thinking of going to (Macs)."
Apple made the announcement at the National Educational Computing Conference in San Diego, a technology conference for educators. But it isn't just targeting school administrators and teachers. It also offers college students a free Nano iPod if they purchase a Mac. UC Berkeley and Stanford, among other college campuses, have started to record classroom lectures, putting them online for students to download.
Apple stock fell 95 cents to $57 per share in trading Wednesday.

VIA Announces VX700 Chipset

Single-chip UMPC solution
VIA has announced a new single-chip chipset designed for UMPC systems. The new VX700 chipset is compatible with VIA’s C7-M processors. The single-chip VX700 manages to pack all north and south bridge features into a single 35x35mm chip package that makes it ideal for space conscious UMPC designs. It features the UniChrome Pro II IGP graphics core with the Chromation Video Engine. The Chromation Video Engine features hardware acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and WMV9 video formats. An integrated LVDS/DVI transmitter provides flexible display configurations with LCD’s, CRT and HDTV displays. DDR and DDR2 memory is supported by the VX700. SATA II, PATA, USB 2.0 and PCI connectivity is supported too. Support for high definition audio is also integrated. Availability of the VX700 chipset is expected towards the end of Q3’06.

Microsoft iPod Rival Due in Time for Christmas

 
The wheels are in motion for Microsoft's new wireless PMP


DailyTech reported last month that Microsoft was working on an iPod killer; now some new details are starting to leak out on the player itself and the music service attached to it. According to the latest buzz from industry insiders, Microsoft's portable media player (PMP) will have wireless functionality and will be released in time for the Christmas holiday.

According to the sources, prototypes of the new PMP will be delivered within weeks and Microsoft will use its massive cash base in order to heavily promote its iPod killer at launch. Given the wireless nature of the PMP, this opens up new possibilities of music syncing and music sharing between players (and the legal hassles that will ensue). Microsoft will no doubt take the opportunity to pare up the device with the recently announced Live Anywhere service which will be built into Windows Vista. Engadget points to a few more perks to be included with Microsoft's new PMP:

To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you've already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They'll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it'll be worth it to acquire converts to their new player.

Microsoft’s deep pockets will definitely come in handy with this iTunes library hand-off and the possibility of bringing over the much sought after Pod users must have the top brass at Microsoft rubbing their hands together furiously.

Microsoft's Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) will serve as a home base for the new PMP. The new media application sports a revised user interface along with a more streamlined album management system. WMP11 also adds support for instant search, audio fingerprinting and the new Windows Media Audio Professional format.

Microsoft has its work cut out for them as it tries to compete in a market that is 70% controlled by Apple. Sony tried with its own-branded players and music service, but its efforts have been in vain.


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Consumers turn on to digital media servers

The growth in digital entertainment and content, and the maturity of media networking technologies, are fuelling the popularity of digital media servers in the home, according to a new study from ABI Research.



These trends will result in the transformation of existing products such as PCs and set-top boxes into home media servers, the research firm predicts.



Driven by Microsoft, Intel and Apple, the PC media server market is set to grow from $3.7bn in 2006 to $44.8bn by 2011 as mainstream PCs become fully functional media servers.



"With the arrival of faster in-home digital networking technologies such as MoCA, an industry-accepted framework for networked digital media distribution in DLNA, and the increase in pay-TV and internet content for in-home networks, the home media server is becoming a key beachhead in the digital home," said principal ABI Research analyst Michael Wolf.



ABI Research believes that the digital media server will evolve into four main categories: PCs, set-top boxes, gaming consoles and network attached storage hardware.



In the coming years many consumers will centralise much of their content on a Media Center PC, the research firm said.



"Success stories in the PC camp, such as the approval of OCUR CableCard support in Windows Vista, will certainly mean some adoption of pay-TV going over networks installed by consumers," said Wolf.



"But we believe that the pay-TV media server category will be dominated in the near- to medium-term by the set-top box, while the PC media server and consumer electronics categories will flourish as personal and internet content media servers."





 

Mobile phone can record your TV

Television addicts who forget to set their video before leaving for work or get stuck on a train on the way home will be able to record programmes using a mobile phone under a new service launched yesterday.

Remote Record allows Sky+ customers to text details of the programme they wish to record to a special number. The service will then set their Sky+ boxes to record the show remotely.

Owners of GPRS and 3G mobile phones can also browse a seven-day programme guide on their handsets to select the show they want.

Brian Sullivan, Sky's director of customer products and services, said: "Remote Record is perfect for those situations when you hear about a TV show and want to record it there and then, or if you want to catch a particular programme and you're stuck at work, waiting for a delayed train or even on holiday."

Education graduates to Intel

My magnum opus on the lack of garment-rending in Apple’s transition to Intel chips generated its share of feedback. But I was particularly struck by a comment sent via e-mail from reader who took issue with my statement that “every bit of Apple hardware, save for the Xserve and whatever pro desktop will replace the Power Mac, now runs on an Intel processor.” The rebuttal:

BZZZZZT! The eMac is still running a PowerPC processor. And don’t forget the entire iPod lineup—that’s Apple hardware too, and none of them use Intel processors.

Taking the second part of that feedback first, it’s true that iPods don’t run on Intel processors. (iPod guru extraordinaire tells me that the music devices are powered by PortalPlayer chips, though it appears Samsung’s about to get that contract in a decision that seems to be motivated largely by keeping manufacturing costs down.) However, since the article itself was talking about Macs and not music players, the reader’s iPod citation might qualify him for induction into the Nitpickers Hall of Fame on the first ballot. For that matter, hardware like the Apple Cinema Display, the iPod Hi-Fi, and the Apple mouse and keyboard don’t have Intel chips in them either—it’s kind of a non-issue.

As for the eMac, the omission there was purely intentional. Apple stopped selling the CRT-based all-in-one desktop to civilians last year. And when I did a cursory check of the company’s educational store last week, I couldn’t find the eMac there, either. Therefore, I reject the reader’s “BZZZZZT!” and respond with a game show-esque sound effect of my own.

Of course, given Wednesday’s announcement of an $899 iMac Core Duo aimed at the education market, the eMac’s absence from Apple’s educational offerings last week makes a whole lot more sense now. Apple has taken a machine sporting two outdated or out-of-favor technologies—the CRT monitor and the PowerPC chip—and replaced it with an all-in-one machine that features a flat-panel LCD display and a dual-core processor from the company’s chip-maker of choice.

I suspect this $899 iMac will attract some attention from students, thanks to the low price tag. But a glance at the specs indicates that this system really appears to be aimed at teachers, administrators, and the folks who make IT purchases for schools. Consider the two chief differences between this configuration and Apple’s other iMac offerings—there’s no built-in Bluetooth module, and, instead of a an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card, you get an Intel GMA 950 processor that shares its memory with the main RAM.

Not having Bluetooth connectivity or a souped-up graphics card might be deal-killers if you’re an individual user. But in a school computer lab setting, those kind of compromises really aren’t hardships at all. For the classroom, Bluetooth is an unnecessary—and potentially distracting—feature. (Can’t have the kids futzing around with their Bluetooth-enabled cell phones when they should be paying attention in class, after all.) And as our testing on other Macs with the integrated Intel graphics indicates, the Intel GMA 950 is perfectly acceptable on everything but graphics-intensive games—which aren’t part of the curriculum at many schools unless the educational landscape has changed dramatically in the decade-and-a-half since I received my high school diploma.

Instead of forcing schools to pay up for features they didn’t want or need, Apple removed these unnecessary bells and whistles and downgraded a few other specifications (there’s less storage capacity than in standard iMac models and you get a CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo drive instead of a DVD-burning SuperDrive) to deliver a still attractive system at a very attractive price. More important, it kept features that educators do need—AirPort Extreme wireless networking is built-in—in the type of all-in-one system that the education market prefers. On top of all that, this iMac gives Apple an Intel-based offering so that the company’s educational efforts keep up with the Intel transition across the rest of its product lines.

In other words, the release of this 1.83GHz iMac for education users is a smart move that should help Apple both in the short term and over the long haul. Figure the last remaining bits of PowerPC-based Apple hardware, the Power Mac and the Xserve, to make the leap to Intel chips later this year, perhaps as soon as August’s Developers Conference. And then, the Intel transition will, for all intents and purposes, be done.

Well… except for the iPod, as some readers might point out.