8 February 2006 Technology News

last SG · 2006-02-09T09:55:45+00:00

Lost an IPod or Wallet? Look for It Online BOSTON - Maureen Silliman felt her empty pocket and gulped: Her new $300 iPod must have bounced out as she ran t...

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Firefox 2.0 Alpha Imminent

The Mozilla Foundation is close to releasing the first alpha edition of the next Firefox, the group's Web site announced, with a Tuesday unveiling likely.

Firefox 2.0, which at one point Mozilla officials said would debut in Alpha 1 format by the end of February, may appear as early as Tuesday. The browser, which will stress bookmark, tab, and extension changes, is in early development, and is scheduled for a final rollout in the third quarter.

According to entries on the Mozilla Developer Center blog and minutes of a status meeting a week ago, Firefox 2.0 Alpha 1 -- also called "BonEcho" -- may release Tuesday. Or Friday.

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Minerva Networks, Nortel team on IPTV

MANHASSET, N.Y. Internet protocol TV services company Minerva Networks and communications company Nortel Networks Corp. have announced the joint development and release of an Application Interface (API) that enables the integration of real-time IPTV services with Minerva's iTVManager software.

Nortel Networks (Toronto) is using this jointly developed interface as a first step to bring together the IPTV middleware platform from Minerva (Santa Clara, Calif.) with Nortel's IMS solution to make content available to users anywhere, anytime, on any device.

Using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the API gives developers and service providers the tools needed to enable real-time applications such as voice mail access and callback functionality over the television set. This development environment also provides service providers with investment protection through support for legacy non-SIP systems including caller ID and instant messaging as well as well providing a foundation for future IMS services.

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Nimbus Storage Appliances Unify SAN/NAS, SAS/SATA

Nimbus Data Systems aims to unify SAN and NAS architectures in a new series of unified IP storage appliances, and the company is depending on channel partners to bring the products to market.

The San Francisco-based storage vendor on Tuesday unveiled two new appliances, each of which offers meets a range of storage requirements in one device, CEO Thomas Isakovich said. The appliances can be used as an iSCSI SAN array and as a NAS appliance using Gbit or 10-Gbit Ethernet, he said. They can be simultaneously configured with SAS drives for primary storage and with SATA drives for nearline storage for migration of data between the two.

"We are the first to support SAS and SATA in a single enclosure," Isakovich said. "And we are the first to do iSCSI with 10-Gbit Ethernet."

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Microsoft, Brown University Launch Center For Pen-Based Computing

Microsoft and Brown University launched the Microsoft Center for Research on Pen-Centric Computing, at the university in Providence, RI. Monday. The university announcement stated that the center is aimed at "improving pen-based operation of Tablet PCs, Pocket PCs and Palm Pilot personal digital assistants (PDAs), electronic whiteboards and conventional desktop computers."

"We will create new ways of combining the pen and the computer to positively affect not only the educational process, but our working methods and our culture," said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of research at Microsoft, in a statement. Microsoft will fund the center with $1.2 million over the next three years.

Director of the center will be Andries van Dam, the university's vice president for research. Both Brown and Microsoft have pioneered pen-based computing research. Brown researchers have investigated gesture-recognition software for more than a decade in studies that have been partially funded by Microsoft. "The pen is mightier that the keyboard," van Dam stated.

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Nanoelectronics roadmap aims to speed commercialization

MANHASSET, NY The IEEE launched an Nanoelectronics Standards Roadmap initiative Tuesday (March 21) to forge industry standards for nanotechnology.

The effort is designed to move nanoelectronics innovations from laboratory to the marketplace for applications ranging from communications, information technology, consumer products and optoelectronics.

IEEE will host a roadmap workshop on May 18 in New York to define the scope and timing of the standards.

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Whale Telecom suit against Qualcomm dismissed

MANHASSET, N.Y. CDMA technology supplier Qualcomm Inc. announced that the Supreme Court for the State of New York has dismissed a suit filed against the company by Whale Telecom Ltd.

Whale's lawsuit, filed in November 2004, sought over $400 million in damages relating to purported agreements with Qualcomm (San Diego) for services to be performed in the former Soviet Union. The court dismissed the claims on the grounds that they were legally meritless as well as barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

"Qualcomm is gratified that the Court has found Whale's sensationalist and inflated claims to be meritless," said Bill Sailer, senior vice president and legal counsel, in a statement. It is unknown whether Whale plans to appeal the decision.

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Celoxica teams with AMD, HP, Cray on acceleration

LONDON Celoxica Holdings plc, a developer of C language hardware design entry tools, has formed partnerships on accelerated computing with processor vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and with computer makers Hewlett-Packard, Cray and Silicon Graphics Inc.

The business approach was so successful for Celoxica (Abingdon, England) in 2005 that the company now regards the application as a second strand of its business. Celoxica was previously predominantly only a vendor of EDA tools.

Celoxicas technology is based on research conducted at Oxford University in the early 1990s and it allows a C-like high-level language to be used as the starting point for the synthesis of hardware that is then implemented either in a field-programmable gate array or an ASIC.

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Samsung bullish on NAND market growth

TAIPEI, Taiwan Despite concerns about oversupply in the global NAND flash market, Samsung Electronics is forecasting that the market will reach up to $18.5 billion in 2006.

Hwang Chang-Gyu, president and CEO of Samsungs Semiconductor Business, forecast during a forum here on Tuesday (March 21) that the NAND market will stabilized by the second quarter.

"The global NAND flash memory market is expected to reach somewhere between $16.7 billion and $18.5 billion this year, compared with last years $11.1 billion," Hwang said.

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Microsoft Wins Big European TV Deal

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom will use Microsoft's software to deliver television and video-on-demand over its upgraded Internet Protocol network starting this summer, the two companies said on Tuesday.

The move marks the biggest European contract Microsoft TV has signed, and the second largest after one with AT&T in the United States, the world's largest software maker said.

"It is a very large deal for us and brings the overall number of contracts to 13," said Microsoft TV's marketing manager Christine Heckart.

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BellSouth To Test Large Scale Wi-Max Rollout

NEW YORK (Reuters) - BellSouth Corp. said on Monday it is looking at emerging wireless technology Wi-Max as a way to more cheaply provide high-speed Web services in areas where its wired network is slow or has been damaged.

BellSouth, which recently agreed to be sold to AT&T Inc., already sells city-wide wireless broadband services in five markets including New Orleans using a proprietary technology. It is looking at Wi-Max to lower costs and expand its subscriber base.

The No. 3 U.S. regional provider plans to test Wi-Max equipment in its labs in the coming months and expects to run a live network trial in the second half of the year. It said it has not yet decided whose equipment it would use for the tests.

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Analysis: Winning the patent game in Asia

We've heard so much about it over the last several years that intellectual property (IP) issues hardly get us excited. Yes, we all know about both sides of the story the complaints by both patent holders mostly outside Asia and those in Asia new to the patent regime.

A recent report by the U.S.-based Manufacturing Policy Project concludes that companies from countries with weak IP protection are copying technologies from unprotected patent applications that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Japan's Patent Office (JPO) post on the Internet. The JPO found out that its applications are being examined about 17,000 times daily from China and 50,000 times daily from South Korea.

The report claims that Chinese pirates and counterfeiters are now defending themselves with a new technique called A Great Wall of Patents. This process involves filing for patents in China for the products copied. The applications are claimed to use modified drawings and descriptions taken from the patent office Internet sites in the United States, Europe and Japan.

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Airlines lose 204,000 bags a year

SAN JOSE, Calif. SITA Inc., an IT provider that tracks baggage information for airlines and passengers, said the air transport industry is losing about $2.5 billion annually because of misconnects and mishandled baggage.

SITA (Geneva) also revealed that the number of bags lost or stolen is running at about 204,000 per annum.

The company, which proposes radio frequency identification (RFID) as a possible solution, also reports that the problem of mishandled baggage is worsening on both sides of the Atlantic. This is due to airport congestion, tight turnaround times, increased interlining, security regulations and mounting passenger and baggage volumes, said Francesco Violante, managing director of SITA.

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Microsoft To Converge System Builder, OEM Divisions

Microsoft confirmed Tuesday that its working to converge its system builder channel and OEM organizations.

The change is slated to take effect in Microsoft's 2007 fiscal year, which starts July 1. Plans call for Scott Di Valerio, corporate vice president of the Redmond, Wash., companys OEM division, to lead the combined group and to work with Kurt Kolb, vice president of system builder and license compliance, on the transition. Its unclear what Kolbs role will be going forward.

A Microsoft spokesman said in an e-mail that the software giant "will continue to make investments to ensure local PC manufacturers have the tools, programs and benefits they need to succeed." The company's stance is that the combination of the system builder and OEM groups will result in better resource allocation.

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Saudi Arabia frees activist held over Web article

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia released on Tuesday an Islamist activist who was arrested earlier this month after criticising a cabinet minister in an Internet article, a colleague said.

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Pryor Bowl Nets More Than $7,000

SOUTH RUSSELL, Ohio - A ceramic bowl painted by Richard Pryor raised $7,099 in an online auction benefiting an Ohio animal rights group.

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China forces online gamers to unmask

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese gamers who frequently adopt flamboyant alter egos for their online contests will soon be forced to reveal their true identities in a bid to stop youngsters from spending too much time in the virtual world.

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Google launches test version of finance site

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Internet giant Google has quietly launched a test version of a financial news portal, aiming to draw users away from rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN.

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Siemens, Nokia build faster T-Mobile network

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens and Finland's Nokia are equipping T-Mobile's mobile phone network to speed up third-generation services such as Internet surfing and downloading movies in Germany and Austria.

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EU Urges More Broadband Internet Access

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union's executive office on Tuesday called on the governments of member nations to do more to get people online, saying only 13 percent of the union's 450 million people have broadband Internet access.

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Microsoft to Boost Availability of Xbox

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it will significantly ramp up the availability of its Xbox 360 video-game consoles, following production problems that have made the popular game systems difficult to find on store shelves.

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