Hardware.no: Tips til artikler på hw.no

[b-real]

Documentation obtained by Joystiq – and subsequently confirmed with two separate sources – reveals that "USB Mass Storage Device Support on Xbox 360" will soon be a reality. The document, authored by a senior software development engineer at Microsoft, states that due to "increased market penetration of high-capacity, high throughput USB mass storage devices, a 2010 Xbox 360 system update" will allow consumers to save and load game data from USB devices. The update is purportedly coming in Spring 2010.

 

Google is looking to take the Android operating system to the big screen—the one in your living room, anyway. The company has partnered with Intel and Sony in order to bring a more interactive viewing experience to the TV in the form of (you guessed it) set-top boxes. The idea behind it is giving users the ability to seamlessly switch between Web apps and video entertainment, though there's already plenty of competition in this space. Or is there?

[b-real]

Screenshots of Windows Live Wave 4 have been leaking for quite some time, but now a build of Essentials has finally leaked. The build number is 15.2.2585.0122, where the first two suggests it is part of the Milestone 2 branch. This is an old build. We have already heard about 15.3.2659.319, which means Windows Live Wave 4 is at least at Milestone 3 right now. Rumors peg a Milestone 3 build being released on May 18, 2010, a beta build being compiled by June 3, 2010, and a beta build being available to the public on June 7, 2010. The dates are very specific dates so we remain skeptical about them.

 

 

Many systems that purport to have connectivity to the IPv6 Internet, well, don't. According to measurements done by Google 18 months ago, about a third of a percent of all Web users' systems think they have IPv6, with huge regional differences. In reality, it doesn't work for 27 percent of those users. Last week at the IETF meeting in Anaheim, engineers from Yahoo proposed to solve this problem by only exposing a server's IPv6 addresses if a DNS query comes in over IPv6.

Endret 29. mars 2010 av b-real

[Simen1]

Rolf/Jørgen: AMDs 12-kjerne får plass i et vanlig ATX hovedkort: Supermicro H8SGL. Tenk å sette noe sånt i et vanlig PC-kabinett.

 

Jan Arild: Glimrende for HPC-noder: Man får hovedkort med plass til 2 stk 12-kjerner 256 GB ram på hvert av hovedkortene. Det beste er at man får plass til 2 slike hovedkort i 1U. Det blir vanvittige 2016 kjerner og 21504 GB ram i et 42U rack. Selvsagt med IB interconnect.

[b-real]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/03/hacker-vows-to-fight-sony-ps3-update-restore-linux-support.ars

 

iPhone hacker George Hotz, aka "GeoHot," was able to finally crack the PlayStation 3... three years after the system's release. He praised the hardware for its security, but now that Sony has responded by removing the Linux capabilities of the PlayStation 3 entirely, the hacker has decided to fight back, warning gamers not to update their systems until he finds a way to keep the Other OS option on the PlayStation 3.

 

The problem for Sony is that GeoHot is now threatening to release custom firmware for the system, which is quite the escalation from what was previously available from the hacking community. "I never intended to touch [custom firmware], but if that's how you want to play..." Hotz wrote on his blog. Sony may have done much more harm than good with its April 1 update.

[b-real]

• Ubuntu: Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu 10.10 will be codenamed Maverick Meerkat.
  
• ISO OOXML convener: Microsoft's format "heading for failure":
  

  Although Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format became an ISO standard two years ago, the company still hasn't built any software that truly complies with the standard. Microsoft Office 2010, which is expected to be released later this year, implements the deprecated "transitional" version of the format and is not compatible with the version that was crafted by the standards body.
  Microsoft's failure to adopt the standard version of the format after two years has drawn criticism from Alex Brown, the convener of ISO's OOXML subcommittee (SC34). Brown was consistently supportive of Microsoft's push to obtain fast-track approval for OOXML during and after the ISO review process, but his optimism appears to be waning. In a recent blog entry, Brown contends that Microsoft is not fulfilling its commitment to adopt the ISO's edited version of the standard.

  
  
• Appeals court upholds eBay victory in trademark case
  
• IE har vist ikke tapt så mye i markedsandel etter EU krevde støtte for flere nettlesere i sine operativsystemer
  

[b-real]

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday that Google and Microsoft's access to his newspapers could be limited to a "headline or a sentence or two" once he erects a pay wall around his titles' websites

 

Sony has recently developed a wireless chip alternative to today’s chips that use conventional pin connections. This sets new limits on how small an electronic device can be. By using millimeter wave technology, operating in the 30 to 300 GHz spectrum, a short-range link can be established between devices. Sony has already tested a 40-nanometer CMOS prototype system and achieved transfer speeds of 11 gigabits per second operating at 56 GHz over a distance of 14 millimeters. By moving data between chips, with wireless technology, allows for simpler substrates and IC packaging. Wireless also enhances the reliability of movable and detachable components in certain products. Sony’s system incorporates a free-running transmitter oscillator and an injection lock system. The injection lock system allows the receiver frequency to lock-in (synchronized) with the transmitter’s frequency. This eliminates the need to employ a phase-lock loop approach that is generally used for synchronization. Injection lock system is used in the receiver to synchronize it to the transmitter frequency. This eliminates the need for phase-lock loop system that uses more power and takes up additional space. Credit: Sony Corp. Sony will be rolling out their wireless technology in phases. The first phase will be to enhance the reliability of movable and detachable components and for data transfer between printed circuit boards. Phase two incorporates the technology into chip packages. In phase three Sony will integrated directly into system-on-chip devices that will roll out into their consumer product line. Sony envisions the elimination of pins and wiring that will allow for a clutter free circuit board. The technology is still being refined and no commercialization dates have been announced. Sony has stated, "the potential to launch it within three years is strong. Once we are satisfied with the layout and performance, then we can start production immediately."

 

Nintendo will release "Ando Kensaku" on April 29 as the first joint project between the two companies, a Nintendo spokesman said. In the game, which is to be given a Japan-only release for Nintendo's Wii console, players compete by correctly guessing the most popular web search terms, and the word with the most hits wins, the spokesman said. The game, which will use Google's search engine and allow four players to play together, will sell for 4,900 yen ($52), the spokesman said. The two companies have no immediate plan to launch more joint projects.

 

Alex Brown, the convener of ISO's OOXML subcommittee (SC34), criticized Microsoft last week for failing to properly support the standard in Office 2010. Brown declared that Microsoft's office format was "heading for failure" due to the growing number of unresolved technical deficiencies and Microsoft's own apparent lack of interest in implementing ISO's revised version of the standard. Microsoft technical evangelist Doug Mahugh responded on Wednesday in an effort to clarify Microsoft's intentions for OOXML support. He said that Microsoft is strongly committed to the standard and plans to achieve full compliance with the ISO-approved specification. He explained that Microsoft was unable to support strict OOXML compliance in Office 2010 due to various logistical issues and time constraints.

 

 

 

New memory management method give multicore boost to apps

Making serial software—programs where a series of operations happen in strict sequential order—exploit multicore processors is a pressing problem. A group at North Carolina State University has developed a technique that gives these serial programs a greater degree of parallelism automatically, yielding performance improvements of some 20 percent in real-world programs.

 

What NCSU did was to concentrate on memory allocation and deallocation. This memory management can occupy a substantial amount of processor time and is normally performed sequentially, but it has a property that makes it amenable to parallel techniques. Namely, programs don't depend on the result of memory deallocation. This means that deallocation tasks can safely be performed in the background, on another processor core, with the result that the program no longer needs to wait for deallocation to occur. With some tuning, NCSU achieved modest—but consistent—performance gains of around 20% in tasks that would normally be single-threaded.

 

Responding to a medium-sized uproar, Windstream Communications says it is sorry about those customer searches performed by Firefox users and redirected from Google to its own search engine, and the Little Rock, Arkansas-based ISP has now got the situation under control.

 

"Windstream implemented a network change on Friday, April 2 that affected certain customer Web browser search box queries, producing search results inconsistent with Windstream's prior practices," a spokesperson for the voice/DSL service told us. "Windstream successfully implemented configuration changes today to restore original functionality to these search queries after hearing from affected customers."

 

The question, of course, is whether the company accidentally or deliberately rigged its network software to produce those "inconsistent" results. We asked, but not surprisingly didn't get an answer to that query.

[b-real]

The Santa Clara, Calif., chip-maker says the Light Peak system it is developing with other companies would connect home electronic equipment with fiber-optic cables, which initially could send data at 10 gigabits per second, speedy enough to transfer a full-length Blu-ray movie from one gadget to another in about 30 seconds.

That's 20 times faster than is possible with the USB connectors ubiquitous on PCs today, and the company says a more advanced version of Light Peak that it eventually will offer would be able to transfer the same movie in just three seconds.

Moreover, Intel says the fiber-optic system will allow laptops and other electronic gear to be made thinner, while enabling consumers to hook up their gadgets at much greater distances and without cluttering their homes with the confusing array of cable types and sizes they are forced to use now.

"Our goal and expectation is that it's the beginning of a new generation" of cable connections, said Jason Ziller, an Intel director working on the concept. He added that the advantages the technology offers will be something "everybody is going to want and need over the next 10 to 20 years."

http://www.physorg.com/news189877082.html

 

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/digital-economy-bill-passes-in-the-uk.ars

The UK's Labour government, partnering with the Conservatives, yesterday pushed through the controversial Digital Economy bill over opposition from Liberal Democrats and some in its own party. The bill allows the UK courts to order complete blocks on websites, it requires ISPs to start sending P2P warning letters from copyright holders, and it opens the door to throttling and Internet disconnection for repeat infringement.

 

As we discussed yesterday, the bill was moved quickly through the "wash-up" process that occurs at the end of a Parliamentary session. Opponents and critics of the bill argued that such changes to the UK's Internet were too important to head through Commons after a couple hours of debate; surely they could wait until after the election?

 

Conservatives have been promising that, should they win the May 6 election, they will patch up any problem areas in the hastily passed bill. This argument was blasted yesterday during the bill's third reading, when one MP said (read the debate transcript):

 

"I was rather taken aback yesterday to hear someone—I think it was the Conservative Front Bencher—say, 'Let's just get this Bill through and if there's anything wrong with it, we can put it right.' Ten years into being here, I know that if we do things in a hurry and get them wrong, the law of unintended consequences always kicks in. It would be far better to remove [controversial] clauses 11 to 18 and have a period of reflection."

 

No such reflection was allowed. The bill was voted on for the second time in two days, it passed Commons (and previously passed the Lords), and now waits only for the automatic Royal Assent to become law.

 

The bill has at least prompted both Labour and Conservatives to pledge support for 2Mbps minimum broadband everywhere in the UK. There is also a robust appeals process for those who want to contest copyright infringement notices (though at their own expense).

 

That didn't appease the Open Rights Group, which today replaced its homepage with this:

 

 

Microsoft details Exchange Server 2010 SP1

Microsoft today announced what is coming later this year as part of Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1). SP1 will encompass all the fixes and tweaks from the roll-ups that have already been released. In addition to improvements directly based on customer feedback since RTM, the team says SP1 includes new feature tweaks such as archiving and discovery enhancements, Outlook Web App improvements, mobile user and management improvements, and additional UI for management tasks.

 

 

In a recently published whitepaper titled "Enhancing the performance of Windows Internet Explorer 8," Microsoft detailed browser add-ons, toolbars, malware, restricted sites, plus more advanced topics such as User Agent String and concurrent download settings. In itself, it's a useful guide for IE8 users who are having trouble with their browser's speed. For our purposes, though, there's some interesting information about add-ons included:

 

 

Custom firmware on PS3, Linux on Slims? GeoHot fights back

Noted iPhone and PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz, or GeoHot, told the gaming community not to update their systems until he was able to release custom firmware allowing them to continue using their Linux partitions, and it looks as if he's close to his goal. A new video posted today shows the hack, although a release date hasn't been given for the rest of us to download his work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-9wLWQ4-uA&feature=player_embedded

 

 

AMD Divulges Phenom II X6 Secrets, Turbo Core Enabled

Endret 8. april 2010 av b-real

[b-real]

Hitachi has announced they may be able to double the life of rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries through the development of a new cathode material. The material was developed in conjunction with the company Shin-Kobe Electric Machinery, and while it will not be useful initially for small applications such as laptops, cameras or smartphones, it may be ideal for larger batteries in hybrid or electric vehicles, and for storing excess energy produced by wind farm generators.

[b-real]

The US International Trade Commission will begin an investigation based on a complaint filed by Sony last month against Hong Kong-based TPV Technology Ltd and Taiwan's Innolux Display Corp, a USITC statement dated Thursday said.

If the panel finds that the companies violated intellectual property rights, it may issue cease and desist orders against them, effectively banning the sale of their products in the United States.

TPV is the world's largest manufacturer of liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors that supplies panels to Dutch electronics giant Philips, Japan's Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba as well as South Korea's LG Electronics.

Sony has previously placed orders with TPV, but has not maintained the relationship. Last year it sold an LCD TV assembly plant to TPV rival Hon Hai, which also makes Sony's Playstation game consoles and Bravia televisions.

A Sony spokesman declined to comment on the company's relationship with its suppliers nor details on its complaint.

Innolux merged with Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp in November to become Taiwan's largest LCD panel maker, and was renamed Chimei Innolux Corp. It is an affiliate of Hon Hai Precision Industry.

Japanese makers, recovering from a global economic downturn that battered their bottom lines, have outsourced their manufacturing to Chinese and Taiwanese makers to cut costs and streamline operations.

Sony's complaint also targets California-based ViewSonic Corp, a provider of liquid crystal and plasma displays.

 

© 2010 AFP

[Simen1]

AMD gir ut vareprøver av 32nm 4-kjerner med integrert GPU (Llano) til sine samarbeidspartnere.

Mer info

 

Apple vurderer å bruke AMD llano (og senere bulldozer) prosessorer.

 

AMD har solgt 6 millioner Dx11 Radeon 5xxx GPUer.

 

Samsung starter leveranser av 20 nm flashbrikker.

[Simen1]

STOR HASTE-NYHET: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS ble lansert i går, men det er ennå ikke noen artikkel på Hardware.no om dette.

[b-real]

Samsung's New Display Driver IC Packaging Solution Enhances Heat Dissipation in High-Performance TV Applications

[GullLars]

En drøftning av mulig SSD utvikling med ONFI 2, det er ikke ment som en artikkel, og kan inneholde feil siden noe av data drøftningen er basert på er eldre, men drøfningen skal stemme, og tallene kan oppdateres om det slippes nye.

Jeg tenkte denne kunne være noe å sette tennene i over litt tid, muligens noe å lese for interesse for de i redaksjonen som er interresert i SSD. Den er på over 3500 ord, så det kan være greit å ta i noen omganger

[b-real]

Så absolutt verdig en artikkel det der.

[GullLars]

Den bør i alle fall rettleses først, da jeg hadde vært våken i over 24 timer når jeg postet den og har hatt en uke med ganske kraftig insomnia. Det bør også sjekkes mot nye tall fra produsenter av ONFI kompatibel flash, siden de som er brukt er noe eldre tall.

 

Den er ment som en drøftning av hva som kan gjøres i kommende SSDer, og hvorfor jeg er misfornøyd med noen av de som er på markedet i dag og har blitt sluppet i år.

 

Om du skummer den kan du se jeg har gjort noen linjer fete, blandt dem står det at det største poenget jeg tar opp i hele posten er båndbredde pr GB kapasitet (MBps/GB) både for les og skriv. Deretter tydelig målretting av produkter mot segmenter de egner seg i, benyttelse av "clean block pool writing method" som er referert i link #2 i toppen av posten, og bruk av intern komprimering for SSDer som brukes til systemdisker. Andre punkter som kan listes er SATA 6Gbps, PCIe, Read:Write ratio, kompleksitet og kapasitet av kontrollere i forhold til bruksområde (ikke diskutert direkte). Jeg ser også jeg glemte å ta med hva jeg annser som "god nokk" og "ønsket" ytelse for noen av segmentene der det er aktuelt, men det falt inn under eksemplene jeg listet.

Endret 6. mai 2010 av GullLars

[b-real]

We just got our hands on some interesting photos of an upcoming motherboard from Asus we thought we'd share, the CrossHair IV Extreme. If you're familiar with Asus' CrossHair series of boards, then you'll know that the CrossHair IV Extreme is designed for AMD processors. And the "Extreme" moniker hints at the over-the-top nature of many of the motherboard's features, which cater to hardcore overclocking enthusiasts. In addition to the overclocking-centric features, however, the CrossHair IV Extreme has a number of other goodies in store--check it out:

We don't have a full list of specifications for this board just yet, but we do know it is based on the brand new

AMD 890FX chipset and supports all Socket AM3 compatible Phenom and Athlon processors, including the recently released 6-core Phenom II X6 series. If you take a look at the photos above, you'll see the CrossHair IV Extreme sports integrated Power and Reset switches, adjacent to Core Unlocker and OC Turbo Key buttons. As their names suggest, these two buttons can be used to unlock cores on certain processors and automatically overclock the CPU.

 

The CrossHair IV Extreme also supports the new Bluetooth RoG Connect feature, which gives users the ability to wirelessly tweak many system parameters from a secondary system, like a netbook. And interestingly enough, Lucid's Hydra chip, which allows for mixing-and-matching of graphics card from different brands, makes an appearance as well. More information on the Lucid Hydra can be found here.

 

At this point, it's looking like the Asus CrossHair IV Extreme will be one of the most feature-laden, enthusiast class motherboards for the AMD platform when it is eventually released. We're not certain as to when exactly that will be, but we'll fill you in as soon as we know more, so stay tuned.

Read more: http://hothardware.com/News/Asus-CrossHair-IV-Extreme-Sneak-Peek/#ixzz0nXEtzrhX

[L4r5]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/198657/researchers_develop_prototype_for_ultrahd_display.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

 

 

Researchers Develop Prototype for Ultra-HD Display

 

James Mulroy, PC World

 

Jun 12, 2010 2:04 am

 

NHK's (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) Science and Technical Research Laboratories have unveiled their latest Ultra HD plasma display, one-fourth of a Super Hi-Vision display they hope will ultimately replace today's HDTV technology.

 

We've covered NHK's march towards Super Hi-Vision (SHV) in the past, when the company demonstrated sensor technology for capturing 7,680-by-4,320 pixel images. Their latest prototype measures in at 58-inches, and demonstrates the strides they've made towards achieving their goal of a 0.3mm pixel pitch display.

 

Pixel Pitch is a measure of the distance between pixels. When NHK started working towards Super Hi-Vision, the pixel pitch of a plasma display was about 0.9mm. Their 58-inch prototype's display is tantalizingly close, offering a pixel pitch of 0.33mm. NHK currently hopes to expand their prototype into the 100-inch class, offering "ultra-high-definition" for the home.

 

The technology is still a long way from your living room, but the video below offers a peek at what NHK has in store.

[Gromit]

Ny Mac Mini!

 

Sexy sak!

 

http://www.apple.com/no/macmini/

[L4r5]

http://thenextweb.com/eu/2010/07/01/today-finland-officially-becomes-first-nation-to-make-broadband-a-legal-right/

[cc]

Ønsker litt god gammeldags forbrukerinfo:

F.eks skulle jeg gjerne sett en forseggjort artikkel om de forskjellige typene batterier som i dag følger med på mobiltelefoner (og laptop), og ikke minst hva som er best praksis for å bevare kapasitet lengst mulig. Gjerne som en guide som kan oppdateres med tiden.

 

Få med de 3-5 vanligste batteritypene, for hver av disse kan man liste opp:

- Hva man bør og ikke bør gjøre med nettopp den typen batteri.

- Teste myter om 16-timers førstegangslading osv.

- Et utsnitt av mobiler som kommer med denne typen batteri, kanskje link til et prisguide-søk som er filtrert på batteritype.

 

På forhånd takk