From DailyTech: Somewhere Mark Zuckerberg must be angrily screaming, because Google just stepped all over his company's toes. Google, ever expanding its web arsenal which has helped make it the world's largest search provider and the largest internet company, has unveiled a new service called Google Buzz, which is creating quite the... well... buzz.

The new Google service ties together Google's Picasa and Gmail along with Twitter and Flickr to create essentially a feed driven social network of sorts -- with the feed bearing some similarities to the feed that has helped Facebook become the world's largest social network.

The newly unveiled service is available in both mobile handset and PC forms and is easily accessible by any of Google's millions of Gmail users. The service offers some key advantages over Facebook -- its apparent closest rival. Unlike Facebook's static email updates, the new service will provide dynamic updates through your Gmail. And Google is also promising to do a better job that Facebook when it comes to making it clear what you're sharing with whom.

Some might worry about handing Google more personal data than it already has, but let's face it, Google probably knows plenty about you already. For those willing to take the plunge, the services is available on Android and iPhone browsers through Google.com or directly here (more details are available via the link).

While Google isn't likely to displace Facebook anytime soon, Google Buzz seems to have the potential to perhaps steal away more than a few Facebook users who are looking for an easy, less intrusive alternative to the ubiquitous social network.

View: Article @ Source Site

From DailyTech: For a while now, NVIDIA has been offering a graphics technology that allowed the user to change between a discrete GPU and an integrated GPU in their notebook computer. The user had to initiate the change when they wanted to use either GPU and many users simply never used the feature. The goal was to give the notebook user a powerful GPU when needed, but allow for a power sipping discrete GPU when battery life was the main goal.

NVIDIA has today unveiled a new technology called Optimus that takes the dual GPU system NVIDIA already has and makes it much easier for the user. Optimus is able to optimize the performance of the notebook automatically without any input from the carbon-based life form in front of the screen. What that means is that the technology knows when the system needs the discrete GPU and will start it up automatically and when the discrete GPU isn't needed, it turns it off automatically.

NVIDIA's Rene Haas said, "Consumers no longer have to choose whether they want great graphics performance or sustained battery life. NVIDIA Optimus gives them both -- great performance, great battery life and it simply works."

Notebooks using the Optimus technology will hit the market shortly and the first examples will come from ASUS. The ASUS machines are the UL50Vf, N61Jv, N71Jv, N82Jv, and U30Jc laptops. HotHardware reports that the important component is the Optimus Copy Engine and it is integrated into all current 40nm GeForce 200M and 300M GPUs. The Optimus technology will also be an integral part of all the upcoming Fermi-based GPUs for mobile devices.

View: Article @ Source Site

From DailyTech: Solid state drives might be all the rage right now, but traditional magnetic-based storage still rules the roost. Many corporations are moving to a tiered storage approach utilizing SSDs, but they still require massive capacities at a relatively economical price.

Most server farms have moved to the 2.5-inch hard disk drive format in order to increase storage density and decrease power consumption. These smaller drives have less capacity, but you can fit many more of them into a blade server.

Seagate is one of the biggest suppliers of 2.5-inch HDDs spinning at 10k RPMs. The company is introducing its latest Savvio 10k.4 drive today at 450GB and 600GB capacities. It uses 3 platters to achieve this, which is a little strange considering that it is already using a higher areal density in some of its mobile offerings. Competitor Western Digital is also planning to launch a 600GB version of its next-generation Velociraptor 10k drive within the next few months.

The reason is that its customers have been clamoring for more capacity, according to a well-placed source within Seagate. The company is working on another enterprise drive that will use 300GB platters, but that won't be available until later this year.

Instead of waiting, the company went ahead with the technology it had. Enterprise level drives require extensive testing and verification before acceptance, so Seagate was able to collect a lot of data on the new drive.

The Savvio 10k.4 manages to achieve a 2 million hour Mean Time Before Failure and a 0.44% annualized failure rate, making it the first to do so. This gives it 20% higher reliability than any other drive, according to the company. It also has a very high Unrecoverable Error Rate of 1 sector in 10E16.

View: Article @ Source Site

From CNET News.com: Microsoft fixed 26 vulnerabilities in 13 security bulletins as part of its Patch Tuesday, including critical ones for Windows that could be exploited to take control of a computer and one that has resided in the 32-bit Windows kernel since its release 17 years ago.

The top priorities for deployment are bulletins plugging holes in the SMB (Server Message Block) Protocol, Windows Shell Handler, ActiveX via Internet Explorer, DirectShow, and the 32-bit version of Windows, Jerry Bryant, a lead senior security communications manager at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

The DirectShow bulletin should be at the top of the list, according to Bryant. It is critical for all supported versions of Windows except Itanium-based server products. To exploit the hole, an attacker could host a malicious AVI (Audio Video Interleave) file on a Web site, and lure a user to visit the site or send the file via e-mail so the user could open it.

In the SMB bulletin, critical for all versions of Windows except Vista and Server 2008, an attacker would need to host a malicious server and convince a client system to connect to it, or an attacker could try to perform a man-in-the-middle attack by responding to SMB requests from clients, Bryant said.

In the critical Windows Shell Handler vulnerability, which affects Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003, an attack could come via a specially crafted link that appears to be valid to the ShellExecute API (application programming interface).

The cumulative update for ActiveX Killbits is critical, but a Killbit does not address the underlying vulnerability. It is a registry setting that keeps the vulnerable ActiveX control from running in IE.

The vulnerability affecting the 32-bit Windows kernel, which Microsoft announced last month, after Google engineer Tavis Ormandy disclosed it on a security e-mail list, could allow an attacker to elevate privileges to full system access, once the attacker is already in the system.

View: Article @ Source Site

From X-bit Labs: The talks about graphics processors powering servers have been around for the last three years, but so far only a number of special-purpose supercomputers take advantage of graphics processing units (GPUs) and their extreme amount of cores. But in two years time the situation may become different, claims Advanced Micro Devices and GPUs may find themselves even inside mainstream servers

“Mainstream servers in the future could have a combination of graphics processors and CPUs in servers as applications take advantage of thousands of GPU cores”, said Gina Longoria, director of the product management and workstation division at AMD, reports IDG News Service. According to Ms. Longoria, servers may get GPUs as soon as in the next two years.

In the next two years several rather important introductions will take place: in 2011 AMD plans to introduce its highly-anticipated Bulldozer micro-architecture along with 16-core microprocessors, and in 2010 – 2011 timeframe the architecture of graphics processors will become more general and such chips will be more suitable for general-purpose computing. Even now graphics chips can provide formidable double-precision floating point performance, however, their programmability is not as flexible as that of central processing units (CPUs), therefore, the number of applications that can take advantage of GPGPU technologies is limited nowadays.

“As GPU becomes more relevant, that's a better way of getting performance than [CPU] cores,” Ms. Longoria said.

View: Article @ Source Site

From X-bit Labs: After several months of delays, Barnes & Noble on Monday announced availability of its highly-anticipated Nook electronic book reader. Starting the 10th of February, Nook devices will be available in B&N online and retail stores.

“We are excited to announce that Nook is now available online and will be in stock at the majority of our stores by mid-week – just in time for Valentine's Day,” a statement by Barnes & Noble reads.

In retail stores it will be possible to access and enjoy the exclusive “More In Store” content and promotional offers. The "More In Store" content will be updated weekly and available for a four-week period. In February, Nook users in Barnes & Noble stores can enjoy 10% off any CD, the company said.

Barnes & Noble Nook e-book reader is based on Google Android platform, measures by 7.7” x 4.9” x 0.5” (196.2mm x 126mm x 12.8mm), weighs 11.2 ounces (317 grams), features black and white 6” e-ink Vizplex screen with undisclosed resolution, 3.5” colour touch-screen for navigation, 2GB of onboard flash memory for books or news-papers (microSD port also available) and up to 10 days of battery life with wireless connectivity off. The device features AT&T’s wireless EDGE/HSDPA/UMTS mobile broadband connectivity as well as Wi-Fi support to download the content everywhere. The Nook will be able to playback MP3 music, display photographs using its black and white screen.

View: Article @ Source Site

From InfoWorld: South Korea's two biggest cell phone makers previewed on Tuesday handsets they plan to unveil at next week's Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona.

Both phones feature full-screen touch panels on their face, Wi-Fi and close links with social networking services.

The Samsung Monte is an extension of the company's S-series of phones and includes applications for Facebook and MySpace, and widgets for access to Twitter, Bebo and several instant messaging networks.

The front of the phone is dominated by a 3-inch display with full-screen touchpanel through which all the main user interaction takes place.

A GPS receiver hooks into Google Latitude, which allows you to share your position with friends on a map, and provides location data that is embedded with photos taken with the phone's 3.2-megapixel camera. Two applications, Exchange ActiveSync and Google Sync, are included to synchronize e-mail, contacts and other data with a PC.

View: Article @ Source Site

From PC World: Cisco on Tuesday will show just how serious it is about mobile data with the introduction of its first product derived from its Starent acquisition, the ASR 5000.

The new platform for delivering mobile services, which is based on the Starent ST40, is being announced less than a week before the Mobile World Congress, one of the biggest wireless conventions in the world. Cisco will also use the conference to demonstrate the platform, which is available now.

As mobility becomes a key part of data services for enterprises and consumers, equipment providers are beefing up infrastructure for delivering mobile services consistently and profitably. Reaching a subscriber who may be moving or have a thin connection presents special challenges, as well as opportunities to target content to them. Cisco acquired Starent last year for about US$2.9 billion as part of its bid to lead in this area.

The ASR 5000 is a rebranded ST40 but also incorporates the Cisco Unified Reporting System, which brings together various pieces of information about subscribers and networks for easy access by administrators, said John Morgan, a senior manager of solutions marketing who joined Cisco from Starent. It's the first of many new elements that Cisco intends to incorporate into the platform over time, Morgan said.

View: Article @ Source Site