Intel's future graphics chip - Larabee

On Friday, Intel engineers are detailing the inner workings of the company's first graphics chip in over a decade at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco--sending a signal to the game industry that the world's largest chipmaker intends to be a player.




During a conference call that served as a preview to the GDC sessions, Tom Forsyth, a software and hardware architect at Intel working on the Larrabee graphics chip project, discussed the design of Larrabee, a chip aimed squarely at Nvidia and at Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit.

And Nvidia and AMD will no doubt be watching the progress intently. Intel's extensive and deep relationships with computer makers could give it an inside track with customers and upset the graphics duopoly now enjoyed by Nvidia and AMD. In the last decade Intel has not competed in the standalone, or "discrete" graphics chip market where Nvidia and AMD dominate. Rather, it has been a supplier of integrated graphics, a low-performance technology built into its chipsets that offers only a minimal gaming experience. (In the 1990s, Intel introduced the i740 GPU which, in relative terms, was not a success.)

Forsyth said that there is not yet a Larrabee chip to work with--it's expected late this year or early next year--and that "a lot of key developers are still being consulted on the design of Larrabee." But Intel will offer ways for developers to test the processor, he said. "On the Intel Web site there will be a C++ prototype library. It doesn't have the speed of Larrabee but has the same functionality. Developers can get a feel for the language, get a feel for the power of the machine."

Beyond games, Intel is also trying to catch a building wave of applications that run on the many-core architectures inherent to graphics chips. Nvidia and AMD graphics chips pack hundreds of processing cores that can be tapped for not only accelerating sophisticated games like Crysis but for doing scientific research and high-performance computing tasks.
One of the largest test sites for Larrabee is Dreamworks, which will use Larrabee for rendering and animation. To date, Dreamworks had to wait overnight to get a rendering project completed. "Using (the) Nehalem (processor), Dreamworks can almost do it in real time and it is only going to better with Larrabee," said Nick Knupffer, an Intel spokesperson.
Larrabee is "Intel's first many-core architecture," Forsyth said. "The first product will be very much like a GPU. It will look like a GPU. You will plug it into a machine and it will display graphics," he said. (GPU stands for graphics processing unit.)
"But at its heart are processor cores, not GPU cores. So it's bringing that x86 programmable goodness to developers," Forsyth said. Larrabee will carry the DNA of Intel's x86 architecture, the most widely used PC chip design in the world.




Intel is touting the performance of Larrabee's vector unit.
(Credit: Intel)
"It's based on a lot of small, efficient in-order cores. And we put a whole bunch of them on one bit of silicon. We join them together with very high bandwidth communication so they can talk to each other very fast and they can talk to off-chip memory very fast and they can talk to other various units on the chip very fast." In-order processing cores are used, for example, in the original Pentium design and in Intel's Atom processor.

"It's the same programming model they know from multicore systems already but there's a lot more of them," he said.
The centerpiece of the chip's core is the vector unit, used to process many operations simultaneously. "The interesting part of the programming model is the SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) vector unit and the instructions that go with it," Forsyth said. "We want to show off this big new vector unit and the instruction set."

Forsyth described what the vector unit can do and how it works with the scalar unit. "(The vector unit) can do 16 floating point operations every single clock. That's a lot of horsepower. Even in just one of these cores--and we have a lot of these cores. So it's a very high-throughput unit. The good thing is that it's independent of the scalar unit. You can issue instructions on the scalar unit and vector unit at the same time. The scalar unit is extremely useful for calculating addresses, doing flow control, doing housekeeping--and keeps all those miscellaneous tasks off the real powerhouse, which is the vector unit."
At GDC, Intel is encouraging developers to experiment. "They're going to have questions about how do I find 16 things to do at once. But a lot of it is just getting in there and playing with the thing," according to Forsyth. The GDC sessions will be a tour around Larrabee's instructions--"how to actually use these new instructions," he said.

And what about markets beyond gaming? "A funny thing happened on the way to the architecture. We designed this architecture to be 100 percent graphics focused. Whatever we needed to do to get graphics good, we did. And then a year ago, we looked at what we had and said how much of this stuff is actually specific to graphics. It turns out, very little. Graphics workloads are increasingly similar to GPGPU (general-purpose graphics processor unit), increasingly similar to high-powered (high-performance) computing. So, we actually have very little that is specific to graphics. Most of the instruction set is very general-purpose."


source:CNETNEWS

WD'S MY BOOK® FAMILY OF EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES NOW DELIVER 2 TERABYTES IN A SLIM, SINGLE-DRIVE SYSTEM

Largest Capacity Available in Single-drive External Hard Drives for Mac® and PC Users

BOSTON - (Photoshop World Booth No. 615) - Mar. 25, 2009 - WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today expanded its My Book® family of external hard drives to include a 2 TB capacity, the largest available capacity in a single-drive system. With its wide variety of models, WD offers a solution for every type of user, whether they're a creative power user on a Mac® or a home user on a PC. The new 2 TB My Book family includes: My Book Studio Edition™, My Book Mac Edition, My Book Home Edition™ and My Book Essential Edition™ models. Market research shows that consumer creation and acquisition of digital media is growing rapidly, driving demand for increasing storage capacities. According to market research firm IDC, the number of digital cameras and camera phones in the world surpassed 1 billion (Mar. 2008). Separately, market research firm GfK reports that HD (high definition) video camcorders are experiencing record growth and now account for 42 percent of total camcorder sales (Aug. 2008). HD video requires massive amounts of drive space: at least 8 GB per hour of video. Since 2006, when Apple® began offering movie downloads, the Apple store has already sold more than 250 million TV episodes and sold or rented more than 33 million movies (Apple, Mar. 2009).

"The popularity among consumers of high-definition video cameras, digital photography and digital music downloads means that users are filling up their computers with massive amounts of digital content as fast as they can click 'save.' As the volume and value of users digital content grows, backing up data on multiple CDs or DVDs becomes time consuming and inconvenient. At the same time, consumers are realizing the monetary and emotional value of content and need to back up their most important files. The My Book family, with its massive 2 TB capacity allows users to backup all their data in one easy step and keep it in one easily accessible place," said Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups.

Soure: Read more

8 TB (Terabytes) offers by Western Digital

LAS VEGAS - (PMA BOOTH NO. R260) -- Mar. 3, 2009 - WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today announced that WD ShareSpace™ network storage systems now offer 8 TB (terabytes) of capacity, up to 30 percent faster transfer speeds, and DLNA1 media streaming capabilities. Combined with its ease-of-use and small footprint, WD ShareSpace is now a more compelling solution for small offices and digital media enthusiasts who want to store, protect and share massive amounts of content.

Price and Availability
The new 8 TB capacity will be available this week at WD's online store (http://www.shopwd.com/). WD ShareSpace network storage systems also are offered in capacities of 2 TB and 4 TB. MSRP for the WD ShareSpace storage system with 8 TB is $1,799.99 USD

Features
The new high-speed network storage systems feature:

A small-footprint, 4-bay storage system that takes up very little space and provides plenty of storage to go around;

GigE connectivity with data transfer rates up to one gigabit per second when used in a GigE network;

RAID 0/1/5 capabilities for data protection and speed;

E-mail alert system that monitors drive and system health and sends you an e-mail if a problem is detected;

UPnP/DLNA 1.5 Certified Media Server;

iTunes server for centralized shared music;

Microsoft Active Directory® directory service support;

Plug a USB drive into the front-mounted USB 2.0 port and push a button to transfer automatically all the data on the drive to the WD ShareSpace system;

Automatic and continuous2 network backup software including licenses to back up 3 computers;

WD's unique MioNet remote Web access service (for PC and Mac) that lets users access the drive from anywhere;

Download manager that supports scheduled downloads through FTP and HTTP;

Windows Vista® operating system ready;

Built-in FTP server;

3 USB 2.0 ports;

Equipped with WD drives using WD GreenPower technology, this system, with its efficient cooling architecture and power saving mode, consumes up to 33 percent less power3 and is reliably cool and quiet; and,

3-year limited warranty.

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. WD applies its storage expertise to consumer products for external, portable and shared storage applications.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (http://www.westerndigital.com/) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

1 To allow streaming for music, photos and movies to any DLNA Certified multimedia device such as Playstation®3 and Xbox 360®.
2 Users can select specific files or folders for backup during the set-up process. From then on changes or additions made to those files or folders will be immediately and automatically backed up on the WD ShareSpace device.
3 Tests based on comparison between a 1 TB dual-drive system using 7200 RPM drives and a 1 TB dual-drive system using WD's GreenPower drives.

Read more about this article click here:Press Room

American Idol Top 10-updates!

American Idol 2009 Top 10 Poll - Who Will Be The Best This Week?

Who will have the best week with the upcoming Motown theme. Vote in the poll below to make your voice heard!
American Idol Top 2009 10: Who will shine in Motown week?

* Michael Sarver
* Scott McIntyre
* Lil Rounds
* Allison Iraheta
* Megan Corkrey
* Matt Giraud
* Danny Gokey
* Anoop Desai
* Kris Allen
* Adam Lambert

Don't forget to post your comment about your idol!

source: americanidolnet.com

AMD Updates!

AMD desktop platform technology codenamed “Dragon”

"Dragon" platform technology from AMD is a synthesis of power, strength, and wisdom: the fusion of the AMD Phenom™ II processor, ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series graphics, AMD 7-series chipsets and AMD software that puts you in control. It's the PC platform designed for high-definition gaming, video processing and entertainment at an affordable price. The AMD Phenom II processor is the heart of Dragon platform technology, bringing AMD's highest performing processor ever with superior energy efficiency to customers who want to do it all.

AMD is the only company in the world that can deliver all the essential technologies for an amazing gaming experience and breakthrough video processing speeds with our world-class processors, graphics, and chipsets. Whether consumers are creating, sharing or enjoying content, Dragon platform technology is optimized to deliver a high-definition entertainment experience unlike any other.




AMD Platform for Ultrathin Notebooks - Press Kit

The AMD platform for ultrathin notebooks enables exceedingly thin and light OEM designs with rich entertainment capabilities at an affordable price. Previously codenamed “Yukon,” the platform is based on the new AMD Athlon™ Neo processor, ATI RadeonTM X1250 integrated graphics and ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3410 discrete graphics and brings true HD entertainment to a new category of stylish notebook PCs.


AMD Hosts Virtualization Webcast with Industry Partners

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- March 23, 2009 --
WHAT:
As part of “Virtualization Ecosystem Month,” AMD’s month-long celebration of virtualization technology and the innovation of its virtualization partners, AMD is hosting a webcast with three leading virtualization software companies to discuss and answer questions about hardware-assisted virtualization.
Partners participating in the webcast include Oracle, Sun Microsystems and VMware. AMD’s Earl Stahl, vice president of Software Development, will serve as moderator. The discussion will touch on multiple topics relating to hardware-assisted virtualization including benefits of the technology and upcoming challenges. The webcast will include a Q&A session and audience questions will be asked via the chatroom.
WHEN:
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 9am PT/12 pm ET.
WHY:
AMD works with a dynamic ecosystem of virtualization software partners to ensure its hardware provides a high-performance and power-efficient foundation for running their software. As more businesses look to implement virtualization technology for cost savings and consolidation benefits, it is important to understand the performance and power efficiency boosts experienced with running the virtualization software on hardware that is optimized for the technology.
WHERE:
The AMD Unprocessed Mogulus channel and Spiceworks Virtualization Community
AMD QUOTE:
“This webcast provides a great opportunity for AMD and our partners to openly discuss the significant benefits customers can achieve with virtualization technology and the important role hardware plays in ensuring the virtualization software is performing at its best,” said Earl Stahl, vice president, software development, AMD.

To read more about AMD and its partners’ thoughts on virtualization technology, please visit: http://blogs.amd.com/virtualization

source:AMD Press releases

Intel chip flaw--but what of it?

Some researchers claim that Intel has a serious chip bug on its hands. But that all depends.

Security experts who are into the arcana of chip security may find "CPU cache poisoning" riveting and serious stuff. Others, however, may simply scratch their heads and move on.

But let's not move on too quickly. First, a quote from an abstract of the paper (PDF) that has some of the chip world abuzz. "In this paper we have described practical exploitation of the CPU cache poisoning...This is the third attack on SMM (system management mode) memory our team has found within the last 10 months, affecting Intel-based systems. It seems that the current state of firmware security, even in case of such reputable vendors as Intel, is quite unsatisfying."

Joanna Rutkowska, who exposed the potential of the so-called Blue Pill flaw in August 2006 and who founded Invisible Things Lab, wrote that excerpt (along with colleague Rafal Wojtczuk) and obviously takes this very seriously.

As do others. Not worried yet? "This is the scariest, stealthiest, and most dangerous exploit I've seen come around since the legendary Blue Pill!," writes Jamey Heary in a Network World blog. He is a consulting systems engineer for Cisco Systems.

So now that we know it's scary, what could happen in a worst-case scenario? Suffice to say that gaining access to "privileged" SMM memory would essentially allow hackers to do anything to the target PC that they want. The question is, would they actually take advantage of this particular opening?

"If a hacker can use this new exploit to embed a SMM rootkit (malware) they would have ultimate control over the box (computer). Additionally, it would be virtually undetectable," Heary wrote in response to an e-mail query. But he also added: "In a nutshell. This exploit is very serious and needs to fixed. But...I don't see a mass virus or worm using this. The attacks will be targeted. A rootkit must be perfectly matched to the hardware. This makes mass infection more difficult."

Rutkowska and Wojtczuk, in the abstract, say that the paper discusses "how to practically exploit this problem, showing working proof of concept codes that allow for arbitrary SMM code execution. This allows for various kind of abuses of the super-privileged SMM mode, e.g. via SMM rootkits."

Who can do this? "We assume that the attacker has (what is in practice)...equivalent to administrator privileges on the target system, and on some systems, e.g. Windows, also the ability to load and execute arbitrary kernel code," write Rutkowska and Wojtczuk.

And what systems are potentially vulnerable? Though both Intel and Rutkowska say the "attack" presented in the paper has been fixed on some systems, Rutkowska goes on to say: "We have however found out that even the relatively new boards, e.g. Intel DQ35 are still vulnerable (the very recent Intel DQ45 doesn't seem to be vulnerable though). The exploit attached is for DQ35 board--the offsets would have to be changed to work on other boards (please do not ask how to do this)." (Here is a list of Intel motherboards she refers to.)

These motherboards are used with Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium, and Celeron processors, according to Intel's Web site.

Intel has addressed the matter this way: "We are working with these researchers. We take this research and all reports seriously. Currently as far as we know, there are no known exploits in the wild," Intel spokesman George Alfs said in a written statement.

One point worth noting is that this is not an Intel errata per se, which Intel typically details in processor specification updates. This is a theoretical attack from a malicious hacker. Nevertheless, users can minimize the risk by keeping up-to-date on patches and on operating system and security suite updates. Particularly important are BIOS (basic input/output system) and firmware updates for the processors and motherboards referenced above.

So, what is the average user to make of all of this? Security attacks and security vulnerabilities have been around since (computer) time immemorial (in the relatively brief history of mass-market computing). A report from U.K.-based technology Web site The Register in 2006, for example, suggested that people should not purchase Core 2 Duo systems--now widespread worldwide--because of security vulnerabilities and cited an open-source expert, who prophesied doom and gloom for the Core 2 Duo architecture.

Then there's the whopper of them all--and a flaw very different in nature from the SMM vulnerability discussed above--the show-stopping 1994 Intel FDIV bug, discovered by Professor Thomas Nicely, then at Lynchburg College in Virginia. Also referred to as the floating-point bug, it wasn't a flaw exploitable by malicious hackers; rather, it was a bug in Intel's original Pentium floating-point unit. Certain arcane floating-point division operations done on these processors would generate incorrect results.

This bug, covered prominently by The New York Times and CNN at the time, actually had virtually no affect on users, except causing them to panic and, as a consequence, some insisted that Intel provide them with new processors. The recall cost Intel close to a half-billion dollars.

CNET News

Sony Ericsson's U.S. leader to depart

Sony Ericsson's struggling handset business is losing its top North American executive.

Najmi Jarwala, president of Sony Ericsson USA and head of the company's North American operations, is leaving Sony Ericsson "to pursue other career opportunities," the company said in a statement Monday. Last week Sony Ericsson revealed that it expects to lose between $460 million and $528 million during the first quarter of the year, as demand falls for its phones.

Sony Ericsson has had some success in the U.S. with its Cybershot and Walkman phones, but hasn't come up with a major breakthrough in the U.S. and continues to emphasize the entertainment capabilities of its lower-end feature phones through carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile, rather than its smartphones. For example, Sony Ericsson's Windows Mobile-based Xperia X1 has received positive reviews but no U.S. carrier offers the phone, which means it costs a prohibitively expensive $799.99 in this country.

The company plans to announce a replacement for Jarwala "in due course."

The U.S. market has been a struggle for Sony Ericsson's well-reviewed but expensive smartphones, such as the Xperia X1.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

source: CNET news

Samsung introducs iTunes rival for mobile video downloads

Samsung has launched a virtual store where customers in Europe can buy or rent movies and TV programs and download them to their mobile phones.

In its initial rollout phase, the Samsung Movies service will offer more than 500 films from studios such as Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal. The service launched initially in Britain and Germany, but Samsung intends to open it up to other European markets later in the year. By the end of the first quarter, the company said it planned to double the number of titles it will offer to 1,000, and again to 2,000 movies and TV shows by the end of June.

Prices start at 2.49 pounds ($3.55) for a 24-hour rental, or 4.99 pounds (about $7) to buy a movie. However, newer films such as "The Dark Knight" cost 16.99 ($24) to buy, according to the beta site for the service.

In making its entry into this market, Samsung hopes to pull even with competitive mobile offerings from Apple and Nokia.

The service will be compatible only with video-enabled Samsung phones, such as its new Tocco Ultra Edition. But Samsung plans to expand the service to notebooks, MP3 and MP4 portable music players, and Samsung TVs.

Samsung Movies will use technology from privately owned digital movie retailer Acetrax, which holds agreements with film studios and music labels.


Source: CNET NEWS

iPhone 3.0 hidden features!

Apple’s Scott Forstall mentioned that iPhone 3.0 has 100 new features, but he only demonstrated about 20. So what are the other 80 missing features?

More features are sure to trickle out in the coming days, here are a few that weren’t demonstrated on Tuesday:

Tethering (pictured) — One developer was “hacking around” with some carrier bundle files and iPhone 3.0 and somehow managed to activate the tethering preferences. Not only that, he was also able to actually tether his iPhone 3G to his laptop over USB. Based on the preference panel, it appears that you will be able to tether via USB or Bluetooth. (MacRumors)

Publish Video — When you tap on an image in Photos, then tap the options icon, then Send to MobileMe the heading at the top of that window says “Publish Video.” While it could be a typo, it could also be a hint that video recording is coming. (Engadget Mobile)

Find my iPhone – A slider labeled “Find My iPhone” was found in the settings for a MobileMe email account. Sliding the switch to “On” brings up a dialog that says “This enables the “Find my Phone” service on your MobileMe account at me.” When paired with GPS and/or Skyhook triangulation this could be a killer feature for finding a lost or misplaced iPhone. A boon for people like me that lose their phones daily. (Boy Genius Report)

Updated Podcast UI –Apple added a completely revamped UI for playing podcasts in the iPod application in iPhone OS 3.0.

The Repeat and Shuffle buttons are gone
A mail icon has been added, presumably to email the iTunes Store link
A scrubber that allows you to instantly rewind in 30 seconds increments
A Speed modifier that allows you to playback podcasts at double or half their normal rate
Variable speed scrubbing, which allows you to jump to a specific spot in the podcast by moving a little marker in the timeline.(Mobile Crunch)

sources: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/
cnet news

10 Cool New Technologies @ Demo 09 conference.

You better take a look and be amazed of these cool new technologies that will surely make a big hit in the market.




Presto: Instant-On for Any PC

You've probably heard about PCs like the HP Voodoo Envy133 and the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e that can start almost immediately, booting into a Linux OS so you can check e-mail or play some music. But so far, those systems have been embedded in a PC's BIOS, meaning that if your PC didn't ship with the capability then you were out of luck. Presto is a similar instant-on system that you can install on an existing laptop or desktop. Made by Xandros, makers of a popular Linux distribution, Presto should be available as a free beta on March 16.

Why Presto your PC?

Save time and battery life when you need to get online fast
Make old and slow computers useful again—inexpensively
Enjoy a simple, reliable and secure way to get online
Listen to music and watch videos anywhere
Increase your productivity with thousands of available programs
Bonus SuperPass Media
Enjoy unlimited access to popular music and videos with a two week trial of Real Media’s SuperPass!

The retail version of Presto is now available as a free Beta download. Click here to download Presto




Xmarks: Bookmark Collective

Xmarks is created by the same people who make Foxmarks, a browser add-on that synchronizes bookmarks for 3 million computer users. That user base gives the service information on 600 million bookmarked pages. Xmarks is a way to make all that information useful to other users.

You can interact with Xmarks two ways. If you go to xmarks.com, you can enter a site name and Xmarks will let you know what other people think of it. A rating scale tells you how often it's bookmarked, Xmarks users can review the site and Xmarks will tell you about related sites.

You can also install the Xmarks browser add-on (if you already have Foxmarks installed, the update will be pushed out to you soon). When you search at Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft's Live Search, Xmarks will look at the results and offer additional information about the three links per page that have the highest score- a combination of how many people have bookmarked the site, plus its "bookmark velocity," how quickly people are adding the site to their bookmarks. That information looks like it can be pretty handy in finding the most useful sites in your list of search results.




Project Guru: Computer Help From Afar

Symantec has developed a way for geeks to reach out to friends and family over the Internet and fix their computers. With Project Guru, computer savvy tech gurus can invite people to join their Guru network, where they can remotely troubleshoot and repair PCs.

Symantec is developing a handful of tools for the service right now: a remote desktop, security and malware scans, performance tests, and error logs. The service is being tested in a small pilot program and Symantec plans to make a public beta of the service available later this year. The company hasn't worked out whether or not Guru will be free.

(Thanks to Robert McMillan of the IDG News Service.)




SmartyCard: Educational Baksheesh

Any parent who's struggled with a kid whose grades just aren't what they should be learns that sometimes, a little bribery helps. Consider SmartyCard a bribery facilitator. Parents set up accounts that provide rewards, in the form of CDs, toys, video games and books. Kids have to take tests on content that's appropriate to their grade level (the site now serves kids in grades 3 through 6). When your little Einstein aces a quiz, they earn points toward their next reward.




Home-Account.com: Fire your Mortgage Broker

Home-Account.com aims to demystify the mortgage process and make it easy to refinance your home without a mortgage broker.

Their system asks you a series of questions about your financial situation, checks your credit report, then gives you a list of offers for home loans you can choose from. The company says it doesn't get any commissions for matching consumers with loan companies. They argue that means consumers will get the best deals: Lenders would rather get a customer through Home-Account than pay a commission to a mortgage broker, so they'll give the best prices to Home-Account customers. Joining Home-Account costs $9.95 per month.




Pixetell: Facilitating Design-by-E-Mail

As more and more businesses depend on staff located all over the world, communication about things that are essentially visual -- the design of a Web page or the layout of a new store, for instance -- is becoming increasingly difficult. Plain e-mails make it too difficult to describe what you want and video conferences can be hard to schedule.

Pixetell hopes to solve the problem by letting people send e-mails that can include text, video, images and audio in one message. You can send a blueprint of a new store, with your scribbles on it and talk about what you're hoping to see in the next design. Recipients can reply with their own audio and video and their own marked up images.

The service is in private beta now. It's final price hasn't yet been determined.




Gazaro: Your Bargain Hunter

A number of services already search the Web for good deals on your behalf. Gazaro looks like it could be a solid addition by offering not just deals, but an analysis of just how good those deals are.

Gazaro, which is free and open to all, analyzes the price history of a product and tells you whether the price a site is offering is a really good deal or not, based on how prices have been in the past. In other words, $1200 for a particular flat-screen TV may be the best deal you can get now, but it's not a very good deal if the same TV was $1000 a month ago. With that kind of information, you may decide to wait for the price to go down again.




Touch Book: It's a Netbook, It's a Tablet

A Menlo Park company called Always Innovating says its Touch Book will be a netbook that turns into a tablet PC when you pull the screen away from the keyboard. The company also says the Touch Book's battery will last 12-15 hours on a charge.

The Touch Book uses an ARM processor, which means it won't require a fan and won't need much power. But company officials also say it'll be powerful enough to play video, and, even though it comes running Linux, that it can run other OSs as well. It may be significant, though, that the other OS they mentioned as an example was Android, not Vista. ARM processors are far from the most powerful chips on the planet.

The Touch Book is supposed to sell for no more than your average netbook, $299 as a tablet PC only without a keyboard and $399 with a keyboard. The company's Web site says the product is supposed to ship "in May or June 2009."



Vue: No-Fuss Webcams

If you want to keep an eye on things at home, but you don't want to string wires all over the place, Avaak Vue Personal Video Network could be just the ticket. These palm-sized cameras need no wires, attach to anchors you stick to a wall and can operate for as long as a year on one battery. They communicate with a gateway you connect to your router and voila, you can see your cat's latest follies through any browser.

The system appears to be super-easy, but not super-cheap. A kit with two cameras, one gateway and four mounts is priced at $300. The company promises to ship the Vue in early summer.




7 Billion People: Personalized Shopping

7 Billion People hopes to make shopping a more personal experience. The developers of 7 Billion People say they use linguistic and behavioral psychology to analyze what you do on the Web and from that data figure out what kind of shopper you are.

Their demo showed the service running on top of Amazon.com (though they noted that Amazon is not a customer). One company exec went into the site and immediately drilled down to the specs of a camera he was looking for, ignoring all reviews by other customers and recommendations of other popular products. When he returned to the site, his experience was tailored to him -- specs were front-and-center, while most information about reviews and recommendations by other shoppers was buried.

His colleague went to the same pages, but clicked first on user reviews and information like "Other people who looked at this product also looked at ...." When he went to an Amazon page for another product, the site immediately opened up the user reviews page, figuring he would probably be interested.

If 7 Billion People can get this complicated artificial intelligence right, the service could actually make online shopping more efficient for everyone.

source:PC World Article

New "Idol' judges" veto divides fans

LOS ANGELES - A rule change giving "American Idol" judges the power of veto for the first time in the talent show's seven-year history divided fans and TV critics on Thursday, with some calling it "un-American".
The "Judges' Save", announced Wednesday night, gives the four-person panel on U.S. television's most-watched show the power to save one contestant from elimination by the public just once during a season.

The judges must be unanimous and the new rule only applies until the contest narrows to the final five singers.
For a show whose appeal rests largely on its viewer-driven voting format, the change was seen as radical and unexpected.
Raising a "Bravo" for the producers, MSNBC.com entertainment producer Gael Fashingbauer Cooper felt that taking a little power away from viewers was "a good thing."

"I trust experienced musical judgment a little bit more than I trust the texting power of the audience," Cooper wrote in a comment column.
But Time.com's James Poniewozik called it bad TV, said it spoiled the elimination outrage fun, and dubbed it "un-American ".
"To the extent that 'Idol' sells itself as an exercise in democracy, in which you choose your next pop star, it needs to be pure," Poniewozik wrote in a blog on Thursday.

Idol producers said the "Judges' Save" was intended to avoid past situations which have seen the likes of Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry voted off early by viewers, who cast millions of votes by phone and text message.
Both singers went on to launch successful music careers with Hudson winning an Oscar for her best supporting actress role in the 2006 movie musical "Dreamgirls."
But avid fans were quick to note that the new rule would not have helped Daughtry, who was in fourth place when viewers booted him off in 2006.
"This rule is awful, it kills a lot of the suspense, de-motivates people to vote, and doesn't accomplish much," wrote Barbara from Chicago in a posting on the testpattern.msnbc.msn.com Web site.

But the twist was welcomed by contestants Jasmine Murray, 16, and Puerto Rico's Jorge Nunez, despite their early exit from the show after the judges declined to save them on Wednesday evening.
"I think it is a really good thing. There are people who should have gone further and I think it's going to help in the competition," Nunez told reporters in a telephone conference call on Thursday.
Murray disagreed with the suggestion that "Idol" producers had lost trust in America's choices. "I don't think so. I think it is a good idea. America really gets to decide the total outcome."

source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20090313/ten-entertainment-us-americanidol-db3f2d5.html

23-ft. crocodile kills 10-year-old in Philippines!

MANILA, Philippines - A 10-year-old girl was decapitated by a crocodile in a Philippine lake after the creature knocked over her canoe, police said Wednesday.
The girl and a classmate were on their way Saturday to their floating school on Agusan del Sur province's Mihaba Lake when the 23-foot- (7-meter-) long crocodile bumped the boat, causing it to capsize, said Bunawan town police officer Melchor Danuco.

Rescuers found the girl's headless body floating on the lake on Tuesday, he said.
The classmate was rescued by a man escorting the pair in another boat, said Roel Hipulan, head of the private group that runs the school in remote Bunawan town.
"It's a monster crocodile," Hipulan said, adding that he had seen the creature. He said salt water crocodiles, some bigger than a bus, are known to inhabit the lake, though attacks are rare.

But the lake's waters have been swollen for the past several months, causing fish to scatter to others parts. With little to feed on, the crocodiles have become aggressive, he said.

The crocodile attack has prompted the temporary closure of the school and the evacuation of about 100 residents of houses on stilts on the lake, Hipulan added.


article from yahoo:philippines

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American Idol's Lucky 13 (Yes, That's Right - THIRTEEN)

Ryan Seacrest described tonight as a "very special episode of American Idol," but he didn't mean that in a sappy Lifetime Network or Afterschool Special sort of way, or like that one disturbing "very special episode" of Diff'rent Strokes with Dudley and the creepy old man in the basement.

There were some sappy moments, and some creepy moments, however, in this...the all-important, very special Wild Card Episode in which the judges "wrested back a little control" (Ryan's somewhat foreboding words) and handpicked three more reinstated contestants to round out the final top 12. Kudos to Simon Cowell for being honest and saying the judges wouldn't be basing their decisions solely on who sang best, but would also look at this as a "casting" opportunity and therefore make sure to add some interesting "personalities" to the mix. That was fine with me...just as long as Tatiana Del Toro wasn't one of those personalities.

Tatiana would sing later, of course, but performing first was Jesse Langseth. Yeah, that's right--get this chick out of the way right off the bat. Just get it over with. That's not to say Jesse's a bad singer--she's inherited some of her brother Jonny Lang's talent, and she was better this week belting out "Tell Me Something Good" than she was last week doing "Bette Davis Eyes." But Jesse is just not top 12 material, just not "very special" enough. Not even pulling a Haley Scarnato/Jeanine Vailes and flashing a generous length of leg helped her cause tonight, even though her pins did look pretty sexy peeking out of her leather micro-mini. I agreed with Kara DioGuardi that Jesse had a certain seasoned "swagger" to her tonight, but I was still surprised that the judges even elected to bring Jesse back in the first place, over more obvious standout contestants like Ju'Not Joyner and Felicia Barton. And it didn't surprise me when Simon revealed that Jesse had been a total "last-minute" addition to the wild card round--an afterthought, really. Next!

Singing second was piano man Matt Giraud, who blew it big time when his Coldplay cover left everyone--judges and voters alike--cold last week This time he went back to what he does best, white-boy soul, with the song choice of the Jackson 5's "Who's Loving You." This was a wise move. As Simon put it, Matt was a "billion times better than last week." He was definitely more in his element and looking very Timberlake-ish in his cool-cat fedora hat, and Kara and Paula Abdul subsequently welcomed back the "bluesy Matt" with open arms. Simon wasn't such a fan of Matt's hat, or the rest of his outfit for that matter, and he even said he saw "bits of Taylor Hicks coming through" in Matt's performance (huh?), but I thought Matt's star turn was enough to inspire viewers to start a whole new Soul Patrol in his honor.

My girl Megan Joy Corkrey--whose elimination was the one I was most personally disappointed by this season--hit the stage next, singing KT Tunstall's "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree," a bluesy folk-rocker that Katharine McPhee famously sang when she went up against Taylor Hicks in season 5. Back then, Kat sang the tune while sitting on her knees onstage, and I think maybe Megan should have done the same. Look, I totally heart Megan, but the girl does NOT know what to do with herself onstage. She dances like a spaz! Right now it's kind of cute, but that shtick will get old fast if she doesn't figure out other moves besides swishing her hips awkwardly from side to side and swinging her arms like a chimp. But that being said, I liked her funny little version of this song. It fit her personality, as Paula put it, and Simon said it best and echoed my sentiments when he said: "I've always liked you, and I still like you; I think you're terrific." Megan just needs choreography lessons, that's all--not enough to stifle her endearing quirkiness entirely, and not enough to turn her into some Britney/PCD clone, but just enough to keep her from hopping from one foot to the other like she has to go to the bathroom. Then she'll be the total "package artist," as Kara once said.

Loudmouth Von Smith sang fourth, taking on "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word." The ballad started with the lyrics, "What do I have to do to make you love me?" (My answer: Just shut up, Von. I'd love that!) Then he sang, "What do I have to do to be heard?" (Um, I hear you, Von. A deaf person could hear you.) But you know what? He held back--wisely, in my opinion--and kept it relatively mellow, and he didn't bother me as much as he used to. I appreciated this, but oddly the judges did not. Paula told him he was overthinking and being too technical, and "not letting the true essence of Von Smith come out." (What, is Von manufacturing a perfume now or something?) Simon told Von he was "beginning to become a bit boring" and grumpily dubbed him "Mr. Serious." But you know, there was nothing serious about that stupid fauxhawk that Von was wearing. Even Sanjaya wouldn't rock that hairdo!

Singing next was Jasmine Murray, who seriously messed up a couple weeks ago when she tried to take the judges' advice to sound "pop" and "commercial" by warbling Sara Bareilles's "Love Song"--a song that absolutely no one loved. This week she flipped it and decided to sing possibly the most boring and overexposed ballad ever, Christina Aguilera's "Reflection" (WHY???), an anthem that Randy Jackson pointed out was a bit too big for her. But she ultimately pulled it off and proved she has a wider vocal range than previously assumed (Kara in particular expressed shock over this), and while Simon once again griped that it was a performance by a "young girl trying to sound grown up," he did say it might be enough to get Jas back in the game. Good for her.

Savvy web-marketer Ricky Braddy (the guy was already selling "Braddy Bunch" T-shirts online, before he'd even made the top 36) went next, singing "Superstition." And it seemed like maybe his luck was about to turn around. His uptempo performance was much more loose, fluid, and overall memorable than the Leon Russell ballad he capably but stiffly crooned two weeks ago. It was certainly a lady-pleasing performance, since Paula told him he'd "nailed it" and Kara exclaimed, "You can sing your butt off!" Meanwhile, Randy thought Ricky was "self-indulgent" and oversang, and Simon thought the performance was "clumsy" and "karaoke." Being a lady myself, I agreed with Paula and Kara in this case.

Next was the contestant clearly brought back just for dramatic effect, the aforementioned and afore-hated Tatiana Del Toro. Ugh. Now, some commenters on this blog have pointed out my supposed hypocrisy in praising dramatic troublemakers like Nathaniel Marshall and Norman Gentle while simultaneously blasting Tatiana for, well, being a dramatic troublemaker. It DOES seem hypocritical, huh? So, point taken. But the bottom line is, I do not LIKE Tatiana. Nathaniel and Norman seemed like nice (read: sane) guys, and they made me laugh. I liked them. Tatiana just scared me. Her freakouts freaked me out, instead of entertaining me. I hope that explanation makes sense. Hey, I like what I like! And I never, ever liked Tatiana. Sorry.

So out came Tatiana, singing Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love For You." Sound familiar? It should! She sang it two weeks ago, when she first competed in the top 36, and she also sang it during Hollywood Week! What a copout! Simon called her on this, telling her that her decision to revisit this song was "rubbish." I must grudgingly admit that she didn't sound rubbish, though. Yes, Tatiana sounded pretty good. But she should sound good by now--she's had plenty of chances to perfect this song, performing it as many times as she has!

What didn't sound so good was all her incessant babbling tonight. Her pre-performance interview piece was a 30-second hot-messy outpouring of sobby emotion, and then after her song she started screaming at Paula Abdul like that pink-clad, brace-faced, suicidal season 5 stalker, Paula Goodspeed. "I love you so much!!!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!" she howled, refusing to let Ryan get on with it or let the judges serve up their critiques, and thus severely cutting into the remaining screen time for the final singer tonight, Anoop Desai.

Tatiana--perhaps encouraged by Simon's advice to Jorge Nunez last night to be proud of his Puerto Rican accent--had also mysteriously and suddenly adopted a thick accent herself. This was almost as odd as the subdued Stepford Wife fembot persona she took on the last time she was on the show, in a (failed) attempt to prove to the judges and voters that she's not batshiz crazy.

"You've got me all confused," Paula said--and hey, when PAULA ABDUL is saying she finds someone weird and confusing, that's serious. Kara pretty much accused Tatiana of having a multiple personality disorder, too: "It's 'The Many Adventures Of Tatiana'!

Well, I still don't like any of Tatiana's personalities--sorry, again.

Finally some P.A. got out the hook and dragged Tatiana off the stage, and last to sing tonight was Anoop. Amusingly--considering that the song sung before him was a Whitney Houston number--Anoop chose to sing Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative." Wow, that was unexpected. For the first time, I saw real heartthrob potential in Anoop. He had a whole lotta swagger, he worked the crowd like a pro, and the ladies loved him--including Kara (who said his performance made her want to dance), Paula (who praised his "nasty" stage moves)...and me!

And so, the judges pow-wowed (although I suspect their decision had already been made, and this was just a suspense-creating formality), and after the commercial break they returned with their verdict. The first to go through was Jasmine Murray, a decision I tentatively applauded. I haven't been 100 percent happy with all of Jasmine's performances, and I can't imagine her winning this show in the end, but I still think the girl has potential.

Ricky, Von, and Jesse didn't get through (although Simon sadly psyched poor Jesse out when he told her she "almost made it" and she misheard him), but then Megan and Tatiana were called up to the stage together...

Oh no! The ultimate battle of good versus evil!

As it turned out, goodness prevailed, and Megan was the one who got through. YAY! But she wasn't even able to enjoy her victory, because she was too busy comforting a positively hysterical Tatiana, who was bawling like her entire family has just perished in a fiery plane crash or something. Megan was quickly shooed offstage as if she was the loser here, while Tatiana remained onstage to be consoled by an overcompensating Paula. It was really unfair. Tatiana's gotten more screen time than she deserved already. Couldn't she just let Megan have her moment? For once?

Finally Tatiana's 15 minutes of fame were up, and the last spot in the top 12 came down to Anoop and Matt. Wow, what a close race. Both had done so well tonight, and both were so appealing in their own soul-pop way. But I was still pulling for Anoop. When the judges announced that the last winning wild card was instead going to Matt, I was seriously crestfallen. "No!!!!!!" I howled.

But then the judges threw a curveball and announced that this season they'd decided to expand the finals to a lucky 13...and Anoop was in too! I howled again. "Yes!!!!"

Sure, I was being as overdramatic and multiple-personality-stricken as Tatiana herself, but I couldn't help it. What exciting news: All three of my picks had made it, plus another guy, Matt, who also totally deserved a shot. Sure, this news didn't make me as happy as I would have been if the wild cards had included Nathaniel Marshall, Norman Gentle, Ju'Not Joyner, or Jackie Tohn, but overall I was pleased with how things went down tonight. The judges may not have picked my favorite eight to compete in the wild card round, but of those eight, they did select the best four.

And so next week is when things are going to get really interesting. Ryan Seacrest ended tonight's episode by saying that none other than Kanye West would be on the show next week. Did I hear that right? Really? Details, please! Is Kanye going to be a mentor? That would be funny because a) Kanye can NOT sing, so his mentorship would only be helpful if the theme was Auto-Tunes Night; b) this live show would probably end up being broadcast at midnight, because Kanye would show up at least three hours late; and c) Kanye's such a jerk he'd alienate most of the contestants, so that the one finalist who didn't quit and walk off the set in a huff would end up winning American Idol by default.

My guess is Kanye is just performing next week, but I do hope he IS mentoring, because you know that guy's more drama-queenish than a hundred Tatiana Del Toros put together!

So tune in next week when the lucky 13 and (hopefully?) Kanye sing for their lives. Until then...Seacrest out!

Original article by Lyndsey Parker in Reality Rocks
Posted Thu Mar 5, 2009 7:48pm PST
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