NewsFactor Network

Nvidia Auto-Switches Notebook GPU To Save Battery Life

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:28:05 -0500

Nvidia took the wraps off a new notebook technology Tuesday that chooses the best graphics processor for running any given application and then automatically routes the workload to either a Nvidia discrete graphics processor unit (GPU) or an integrated graphics processor (IGP) offering from Intel. Called Optimus, the technology will soon be available on several next-generation ASUS notebook PCs, Nvidia said.

Optimus enables notebook workloads to become instantly directed through the most efficient graphics processor engine for the job, said Sasha Ostojic, Nvidia's senior director of notebook software. "Consumers no longer have to choose whether they want great graphics performance or sustained battery life," Ostojic wrote in a blog. "Optimus gives them both."

Decreasing Power Consumption

With Optimus, Nvidia's goal is to enable consumers to obtain optimal battery performance when watching a HD movie, surfing the web, or playing 3-D games -- all without having to manually change graphics settings. Ostojic also pointed out that whenever the notebook's discrete GPU isn't in use, it automatically powers off. "It powers back on as soon as an application is launched that requires it," Ostojic added.

Nvidia claims the technology can extend notebook battery life by up to two times in comparison with similarly configured systems equipped with discrete graphics processors without sacrificing graphics performance. Still, it's difficult to say right now whether Optimus is a significant industry development, said Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at iSuppli.

"I haven't seen any benchmarks on battery savings when using laptops with this technology," Wilkins said. "Semiconductor suppliers are continually looking for ways to increase performance and yet decrease power consumption."

Though Nvidia is currently focusing on the deployment of Optimus in laptops, it's also possible that the technology will eventually become available in other types of computing devices, according to company spokesperson Brian Burke. "We...

Macworld Focuses on Mobile Apps as Apple Stays Away

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:56:34 -0500

The 2010 rendition of the Macworld Expo kicked off in San Francisco today, although this time without a major Apple presence. The annual five-day event will showcase hundreds of Mac products and services, expert advice, and demonstrations -- but this year mobile apps may steal the show.

According to expo organizers, Macworld 2010 is hosting the largest viewing of applications for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. Attendees can test-drive more than 100 of the hottest apps from companies like TomTom, Tap 11, and BeeJive.

Apple Launches Aperture 3

Although Apple won't be exhibiting at Macworld 2010, the company released a major product update in time to leverage the expo buzz. This announcement comes, in addition of course, to Apple's recent iPad launch, which has been generating buzz for several weeks now.

Today's announcement focuses on Aperture 3, the latest version of Apple's photo-editing and management software. Apple said the new version has more than 200 new features, including Faces, Places and Brushes.

The Faces feature uses face detection and recognition to find and organize photos by the people in them. Consumers can view faces across an entire photo library or just the faces that appear in selected projects. Aperture 3 also displays faces that have been detected but not yet named.

The Places capability lets users explore photos based on where they were taken, and like iPhoto, Places automatically reverse-geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, consumers can assign locations by dragging and dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS-enabled cameras, tracking devices, or iPhone photos.

Aperture 3 also includes new tools to refine photos, including brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of a photo and adjustment presets for applying professional photo effects with a single click. A new slideshow function lets consumers share their...

Microsoft Says Battery Woes Not Caused By Windows 7

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:58:09 -0500

Battery problems on Windows 7 machines are not caused by the operating system. That's the position of Stephen Sinofsky, head of the Windows division, in a long posting Monday on the Windows engineering blog.

"At this time," he wrote, "we have no reason to believe there is any issue related to Windows 7 in this context." He acknowledged reports in the press and in forums about faulty battery warnings and batteries failing. "In every case we have been able to identify," Sinofsky added, "the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement."

'Accurately Detected a Failing Battery'

Sinofsky said that the company has been contacting customers who report issues in forums, monitoring customer-service communications, keeping in touch with PC makers, and utilizing opt-in, anonymous "telemetry in Windows 7" to keep track of the situation. In all cases investigated, he wrote, "Windows 7 has simply accurately detected a failing battery."

One factor Sinofsky emphasized is that there is a new battery notification in Windows 7 not available in Vista or Windows XP. The notification, with a battery meter icon and the message "Consider replacing your battery," appears when the battery is performing at 40 percent of its designated capacity. He noted that some customers upgrading a PC to Windows 7 did not know the battery was degrading until 7 offered this new level of notification.

He pointed out that PC batteries, through the hardware and the BIOS firmware, offer several read-only fields of information about the battery, including manufacturer, serial number, design capacity, and last full charge capacity. Sinofsky added that this information "is read-only and there is no way for Windows 7 or any other OS to write, set or configure battery status information."

'The Answer Is RIGHT THERE!'

But user complaints continue to populate the Microsoft support forum, where the issue has...

Google's Nexus One 'Support' Mostly Passes the Buck

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:29:27 -0500

Need support for Google's Nexus One smartphone? You can finally call Google directly -- but you might not get all the answers you're looking for.

A month after launching its so-called "superphone," Google on Monday began offering a dedicated phone support line for Nexus One customers. Consumers can call 888-48NEXUS from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. PST to speak with a live support operator, but they may get directed elsewhere.

Google is giving directions on four types of questions via the old-fashioned telephone: Existing order status and shipping queries, technical support, repair and return issues, and T-Mobile service issues.

Customers seeking order status and shipping times need to have their 15-digit order number in hand and Google will dig up the information. However, Google is pointing customers in need of technical support or repairs and returns to phone maker HTC. And customers who have questions about their wireless service are being ushered to T-Mobile. So actually, the only service Google is providing is for status and shipping updates.

Customer Complaints Continue

Google is moving to address the negative publicity around its smartphone. Shortly after launch, customers began complaining about spotty reception and early cancellation fees. After hundreds of complaints on its forum, Google said it was aware of the issues that it said affected a small number of users and planned to fix the problem.

Google later came out with a fix and has lowered early termination fees from $350 to $150. But the memories remain and the complaints about lack of support continued. Google sells the Nexus One via an online store that, until Monday, only offered support through customer forums.

Those forums are still up and running and still still show problems ranging from spotty 3G coverage to touchscreen problems to missing audio on Bluetooth pairing to camera problems. The list goes...

Google May Add Facebook, Twitter Links to Gmail

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:58:34 -0500

E-mail is about communicating with friends, coworkers and the world at large. So why should users have to switch over to Facebook or Twitter to post a status update? That seems to be the thinking behind the news that Google will roll more social-networking features into Gmail, the fastest-growing e-mail service.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google will announce later this week a new Gmail feature that allows users to post ongoing streams of status updates while using the web-based e-mail service. A source told the Journal that Google will eventually seek to allow users to stream other Google services like YouTube videos and Picasa photos.

Twitter in Gmail?

In the short term, it's unlikely that having status updates in Gmail would cause much of a ripple at Facebook, which is a full-blown ecosystem of friends, advertising, third-party apps, groups and more.

The new feature sounds closer to Twitter, which is purely a status update service. There may be more room for Google to make some inroads there. A recent survey by RJMetrics found that the formerly torrid pace of new Twitter accounts has slowed to about 20 percent below the peak hit last July. These days, about 6.2 million new accounts are created every month.

But, it turns out, many of those accounts are vapor. Twenty-five percent of all Twitter accounts have no followers and 40 percent have never tweeted. "About 80 percent of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than 10 times," and "Only about 17 percent of registered Twitter accounts sent a Tweet in December 2009, an all-time-low," RJMetrics reported.

Not a Killer App

Twitter seems vulnerable to Google, while Facebook does not, exactly because tweets just go into the either while Facebook posts go to a (sometimes very broad) circle of friends. Just as interest in blogging has started to...

Analysts See iPad Price Drop, with Some Cannibalization

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:27:43 -0500

Just weeks before Apple officially rolls out the iPad, financial analysts are making pricing predictions. But could the analysis itself hinder the initial demand for the pricey tablet computer?

The much-anticipated iPad is priced at $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model, and $699 for the 64GB model -- all available in March. The 3G models won't be available until April and will sell for $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model.

Credit Suisse analysts said Apple will stay "nimble" with its pricing strategy and may even discount the devices if customers aren't buying. Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, sees irony in the reports: The comments could actually cause the result.

The Pricing Graveyard

"We certainly saw people rush out initially and buy the iPhone. When the demand dropped off after the first couple of weeks, Apple dropped the price sharply," Enderle said. "Of course, the iPhone over time has gone from about $600 to around $200, which is a fairly substantial drop in price."

Enderle predicts the iPad will go through a similar price drop, but adds that the coverage of Apple's willingness to stay nimble may actually slow initial sales -- especially among consumers who feel burned by buying the first iPhone too quickly.

"The $600 price range has been a graveyard for products, starting with the original iPod, which had to drop its price point very rapidly, all the way to the Sony PS3, which also died at that price point," Enderle said. "I expect they will drop out of that price area fairly quickly."

The Cannibalization Question

Will the iPad cannibalize Apple's other product lines? In a publicized note, Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope indicated cannibalization is not as large a concern as some may believe because there is...

Black Hawk Down: China Busted Hacker-Training Site

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:57:57 -0500

The Chinese government has arrested three hackers who were running an online hacker-training business. The trio of hackers operated Black Hawk Safety Net, a company that collected nearly $1 million from more than 120,000 members.

The three unidentified individuals were arrested after using the now-defunct 3800CC.com web site to train and provide the necessary tools to wannabe hackers, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Government authorities seized $249,000 in cash, nine servers, five computers and a car from the company.

Last year, China made it a crime to provide other people with hacking tools.

More than 195 million Internet users were attacked by viruses and Trojan horses online within the last six months of 2009, and the accounts and passwords of 110 million users were stolen, according an annual report by the China Internet Network Information Center. Increasing users' trust in the Internet has become "a problem pressing for solution at present," the report determined.

Two men, identified as Li Qiang and Zhang Lei, were listed as the founders of Black Hawk Safety Net in a separate case from 2007. The founders were arrested at that time after their involvement in a virus that caused problems on both private and government computers in the city of Macheng, Xinhua reported.

Delayed Reaction

News of the arrest, however, comes nearly three months after the three were arrested by police in the Hubei province. The delayed announcement comes just weeks after China's government has denied having any knowledge of a major attack on Google's China-based service. Google, however, came under attack by what many believe was a Chinese hacker.

Some believe the attack was done to sabotage Google's service in China in an effort to increase the number of users and advertisers who frequent Baidu, Google's China-based competitor.

"The digital spying in this case and several other...

SAP CEO Abruptly Resigns; Co-CEOs Will Take Over

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:26:14 -0500

Leading business-software maker SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) on Monday announced a strategic shift in the corporate suite. L�o Apotheker has resigned as CEO and member of the SAP executive board, effective immediately. The abrupt decision came as part of a "mutual agreement" with the company's supervisory board not to extend Apotheker's contract as a member of the executive board.

Apotheker joined SAP, which is based in Germany but well-known worldwide, more than 20 years ago. The company didn't offer details on severance or his future plans.

His replacement came quickly with two co-CEOs: Bill McDermott, head of field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development. Both are already executive board members. In addition, Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka has been appointed to the board.

Ready to Return to Growth

SAP, which is best known for its CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, is shoring up its executive direction during the transition. At the request of the supervisory board, Hasso Plattner, cofounder of SAP and chairman of the supervisory board, will play a "strong role" in advising the new leaders on technology and product development.

"The new setup of the SAP executive board will allow SAP to better align product innovation with customer needs," Plattner said. "The new leadership team will continue to drive forward SAP's strategy and focus on profitable growth, and will deliver its innovations in 2010 to expand SAP's leadership of the business software market."

The moves come just more than a week after SAP's fourth-quarter earnings report was released. The company's software-related service revenues were down five percent, service revenues were down 15 percent, and overall revenues were down nine percent.

During the announcement, Apotheker seemed optimistic, saying the company was ready to return to top-line growth. "Despite the difficult environment last year, we never lost focus...

IBM's New POWER7 Servers Save Energy with Big Loads

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:36:58 -0500

IBM on Monday unveiled high-capacity servers that are the first to be based on its new, multi-core POWER7 chip. The company said the new product line is designed "to manage the most demanding emerging applications," including high-capacity smart electrical grids and real-time analytics for financial markets.

The servers are optimized for processing huge workloads of simultaneous transactions, data handling, and analysis. IBM said they offer "dramatic improvements" in price versus performance, energy savings, and server virtualization.

Energy Efficiency

The new systems are built around the newest generation of IBM's POWER chip, with eight processing cores, and are designed to manage millions of transactions in real time while utilizing a variety of approaches to remain highly energy-efficient. With Intelligent Energy technology, for instance, parts of the system can be turned on or off, and clock speed can be lowered or raised, on one server or a group. The company said these systems can deliver twice the performance per watt as Sun SPARC servers and eight times that of comparable Hewlett-Packard Itanium-based servers.

POWER7 systems are optimized for massive parallel processing, high-end throughput, and analytics, and the systems can be used to manage others, such as IBM mainframes and x86-based servers.

Laura DiDio, a research fellow at Information Technology Intelligence Corp., said these "turbocharged systems should really jumpstart multi-threading computing." She added that each of the eight cores can execute up to four tasks each, so "it's as if this were a virtual 32-core processor on a chip."

This capacity is four times the maximum number of cores in POWER6 systems and eight times the processing threads.

Smart Energy Grids

DiDio noted that these systems will enable a huge performance boost in the growing market of smart energy grids, allowing utility companies to go from a million meter reads a day to 85 million. In its announcement, IBM noted...

Faster and Greener? Go Online and Save the Planet

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:02:42 -0500

This should make netizens feel better about themselves: being online and saving the environment can go hand in hand.

For example, shopping online, instead of traveling to the stores by car, means cutting back on gas consumption and associated emissions.

But there is a downside. Many online surfers are unaware of the enormous energy consumption that goes with running the Internet. Still, even though end users aren't the biggest consumers, they can still do a lot to keep energy consumption under control and even save a little money for good measure.

Online service providers run the computing centers that serve as the "hotspots of energy consumption," says Siegfried Behrendt of the IZT Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment in Berlin. About half the energy consumed goes just to cooling the centers. After all, a room full of mainframe computers needed to run these systems gives off incredible amounts of heat.

On top of that comes the energy consumption of normal consumers. "Altogether, that means that all information and communications technology devices in Germany had a consumption of 55 terawatt hours in 2007," says Behrendt. "That equals 10 per cent of all power consumption."

That also means carbon dioxide emissions linked to computer use rival those associated with the domestic German air travel market. "That is considerable and has some serious climate politics repercussions."

That doesn't make the Internet bad. It's still a good thing. But private users can become a part of the problem if they just surf without a goal, clicking randomly. Every Google search consumes energy, reports the UBA, a German environmental group -- perhaps not much individually, but it adds up.

Experts recommend targeted use of search engines for quicker access to desired information. "It's also a question of time use," says Behrendt.

There is no shortage of intelligent ways to put those computing...

New Zealand Student Auctions Virginity for Tuition

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:04:16 -0500

A New Zealand teenager who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal, police warned Wednesday.

The anonymous 19-year-old student offered her virginity to the highest bidder on the Web site http://www.ineed.co.nz under the name "Unigirl," saying she would use the money to pay for her tuition. She said in a post that more than 30,000 people had viewed her ad and more than 1,200 had made bids before she accepted an offer of more than New Zealand dollars 45,000 ($32,000).

Unlike similar New Zealand Web sites, bidding and correspondence between buyers and sellers on the ineed site is private so it is not known what bids Unigirl's offer received.

Web site owner Ross McKenzie said the site's policy was that as long as an ad was legal and did not offend the general standards of society, "it was OK." He confirmed Unigirl was a member on the site.

Prostitution is legal in New Zealand under laws considered more liberal than many countries. Prostitution among consenting adults is allowed in brothels and on the streets, and offering sexual services in print ads and online is also legal.

National police spokesman Jon Neilson said no law appeared to have been breached.

But "we would suggest it's not a safe practice," Neilson told The Associated Press. "There are definitely issues of personal safety" in using chat rooms, social dating networks and other Internet sites that can be used to arrange meetings between strangers.

Unigirl, in her initial post, described herself as attractive, fit and healthy. She did not post a photograph of herself, and bidders did not appear to have a way of confirming any of the details of her posts.

Unigirl said she was desperate for money...

Super Bowl Ads Go for Laughs Amid Product Spotlight

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:05:07 -0500

Betty White plays football, babies talk about "milkaholics" and a house made of Bud Light cans falls slowly apart.

It must be the Super Bowl -- or at least the advertising showcase that entertains amid the gridiron action.

Not every commercial was strictly humorous. Automaker Toyota aired several ads before and after the game to reassure worried owners after its recalls connected with accelerator problems.

A hotly anticipated commercial by conservative Christian group Focus on the Family hinted at a serious subject, although even it had a surprise punchline.

Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother talk about her difficult pregnancy with him -- implying an anti-abortion message, because she had been advised to end the pregnancy for medical reasons. But the ad ended with Tebow tackling his mom and saying the family must be "tough."

Amid the laughs Sunday night on CBS, advertisers such as Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola also put the focus on their products, Villanova marketing Professor Charles R. Taylor said. That marks a turn from ads that were heavy on entertainment but light on salesmanship.

Taylor said he had been disappointed for at least the past five Super Bowls in the effectiveness of ads in connecting with products. Advertisers pay dearly for the airtime -- from $2.5 million to more than $3 million per 30 seconds -- and marketers say ads work best when they sell the product, as well as entertain.

He cited a commercial by tiremaker Bridgestone featuring men carrying a whale in the back of their truck, and another by Dove launching its new men's skin-care line. They were winners, he said, because they manage to entertain while telling people about the brands. The ad for Dove tells the story of boy growing into a man and the signal events in a man's life.

"So far from what I've seen I'm...

Microsoft: Russian Pirates Keep Scamming Us

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:05:51 -0500

One-quarter of Russian software outlets sell bootleg Microsoft programs, the company said Monday as it published the results of a survey intended to elbow authorities into taking more action.

Russia is a notoriously lucrative market for unlicensed software, movies and music -- a persistent issue in Moscow's stalled accession to the World Trade Organization.

Microsoft checked 2,500 retailers in 53 Russian cities over the last few months and found 25 percent offered illegally copied software, while 11 percent of stores offered to install the unlicensed programs onto clients' computers.

Microsoft provided evidence for nearly 1,000 prosecutions across Russia over 2009. Central Siberia and the Far East it deemed the worst offenders. Up to 71 percent of retail outlets in those regions vended illicit software, Microsoft said.

Moscow recorded 27 percent.

Microsoft said it was an improvement and praised authorities for what they have done so far.

"A few years ago most computer stores in some form or other offered pirate software," said Denis Guz, head of the company's department that promotes the sale of licensed software, in emailed comments. "Now, as we see, there are significantly fewer sales points of that kind ... and now the majority of retailers offer only licensed programs."

Stiffer penalties and stricter enforcement have rendered the massive illegal markets that sprouted up during the chaotic 1990s transitional economy a thing of the past. But nook-and-cranny peddlers remain popular and trade openly, suppressing market prices for their legitimate competitors.

Russian authorities have sought to make examples of violators. The 2007 conviction of a high-school teacher who was found guilty of using bootleg Microsoft software in classroom machines garnered huge coverage in the state-controlled media. Alexander Ponosov from a Urals Mountains school was fined $190.