Business News Holding

Tag: hardware-and-technology

  • WWDC: New iPhone 3Gs Twice as Fast, Video Camera


    Apple has unveiled a new version of the iPhone – the iPhone 3Gs – at WWDC 2009.

    Among the key improvements are a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus and VGA video capture at 30fps, improved battery life, voice control, a faster processor and 7.2Mbps HSDPA-compatible radio.

    The new iPhone 3Gs comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, doubling the previous offerings of 8GB and 16GB.

    It will go on sale June 19 in the US. The 32GB model will be USD $299 and the 16GB model will be USD $199.

    iPhone 3Gs will also be available in more than 80 countries in the coming weeks.

    Apple is also dropping the price of the iPhone 3G to USD $99 and the iPhone 3G 16GB model to $149 starting immediately.

    The latter, USD $50 short of the new 8GB 3Gs model, may not be of great appeal.

    The iPhone 3Gs includes the new OS 3.0, which includes over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste (finally), MMS, Spotlight Search, and landscape keyboard.

    The new autofocus camera has a "tap to focus" feature, allowing users to touch the display to select an object or area of interest and the camera automatically re-adjusts focus and exposure.

    Although there’s still no flash, Apple has added auto-focus and geotagging support.

    Video clips can be edited on the handset by trimming the start and stop points – and then sent by email or MMS and posted to MobileMe or YouTube with just one tap.

    The voice control feature in iPhone 3G S offers hands free operation for both iPhone and iPod functions.

    These include a command that activates the Genius feature by saying "play more songs like this".

    iPhone 3Gs has the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard for high-quality 3D graphics, which should further enhance its gaming reputation.

    Battery life has been improved to give five hours of 3G talk time and up to 24 hours of music playback — according to Apple.

    Announcing the new handset, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of WorldWide Product Marketing, said it was on average up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G.

    He said it opens web pages quicker and launches applications faster.

    "iPhone 3G S is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet and we think people will love the incredible new features including autofocus camera, video recording and the freedom of voice control," he said.

    Other new features include:

    • digital compass
    • the OS now supports tethering
    • integrated hardware encryption

  • Sony Ericsson Drops Proprietary Memory Cards For Standard MicroSD


    Sony Ericsson is to stop using its proprietary memory card format in favor of the standard and more popular MicroSD.

    The change will will make moving content between the mobile handsets and PCs easier.

    Among the first Sony Ericsson products to make the shift from Sony’s own Memory Stick Micro cards will be the Satio, Aino and Yari announced last week.

    Sony’s memory cards are a bit narrower and longer than the standard ones made by SanDisk and other companies – making it impossible to insert it into a computer’s built-in memory card reader.

    A user was required to connect their phone to the computer using a cable to transfer music, photos and other content between the two devices.

    While that’s standard practice for many phones, including the iPhone, having standard components makes it easier if not also cheaper.

  • Infortrend Offers First 8g Fc Storage With Comprehensive Form Factor Choices


    Infortrend has announced the addition of 2U and 4U models to its EonStor G6 8Gb/s Fibre Channel (FC) SAN solutions.

    The move by the networked storage expert to provide additional form factors is intended to help more users meet their application requirements.

    The enhancements to the EonStor G6 family mean four new models – S12F-R1840/ S12F-G1840 and S24F-R1840/S24F-G1840.

    Thomas Kao, product planning director at Infortrend Technology, said that to safeguard cached data during power outages, Infortrend has introduced our new CacheSafe technology for the EonStor G6 offerings.

    This ensures that during a power failure the Cache Backup Module (CBM) will write all cached data to the flash backup module (FBM).

    Kao said the Battery Backup Unit (BBU) will automatically supply power for this purpose. Once power is restored, the data in the flash module is written back to the storage system which ensures no data loss.

  • Hosted VoIP Solutions Provider Aptela Works with ClearSight to Resolve Network Issues


    Hosted VoIP solutions provider Aptela has announced that its working with ClearSight Networks’ Network Time Machine (NTM) to diagnose problems on customer and carrier networks.

    Matt Smith, vice president of technology and client services at Aptela, said the solution allows them to quickly and easily maintain network uptime and stave off unexpected outages.

    Since Aptela works with so many customer and carrier networks in addition to its own network, it used to be nearly impossible to pinpoint specific issues and their origins.

    He said NTM works like a metal detector for finding needle-in-a-haystack problems across all points within the network.

    "Now, with ClearSight’s NTM, we can take retroactive network data, pull up metrics on any call, and identify the source of the problem.

    "We are able to resolve issues and performance bottlenecks for our customers and carriers faster, more accurately and with less overhead."

    As a hosted-PBX and VoIP service provider, Aptela routes customers’ voice and data traffic via the Internet.

    For SMBs with limited IT resources and budgets, this method provides the benefits of a scalable and powerful VoIP system without the associated price tag.

    However, it also means that Aptela does not have visibility into the network hardware at each customer location. Smith said that using ClearSight’s NTM and pre-established metrics, the company now has greater insight and better visibility into any VoIP call, fax, email or phone registration over the network—and may quickly identify possible causes of latency, jitter and other call quality problems.

    Hosted VoIP services are on a strong growth trajectory, with a recent Infonetics Research report showing that the VoIP services market grew 33 per cent to USD $30.8 billion in 2008.

  • Palm Pre Passes First Hurdle – "iPhone Competitor"


    Palm’s Pre smartphone has received a pre-launch boost with a succession of (mostly) favorable reviews.

    And, in what must be the ultimate accolade in the highly competitive smartphone market, the device has even been described as a tough competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

    The handset, which goes on sale in the US on Saturday, was praised for features such as its removable battery, physical keyboard and the Web OS software.

    One of the key features coming in for criticism was the Pre’s apparently poor battery life.

    Also mentioned is state of Palm’s app store, which doesn’t have much in the way of applications to offer yet.

    That comes as little surprise since the company has yet to make an SDK widely available.

    Among the reviewers were Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times.

    Sprint,the operator with exclusive US rights to the Pre, even came in for some praise for the speed of its network.

    Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint, has said it will take around three months for the carrier to know how well the Palm Pre is doing in the market.

    He predicted it would sell "like crazy" initially but the real test would come after the initial euphoria.

    Palm and Sprint are under intense pressure to succeed – and with Apple expected to announce a new version of the iPhone on Monday, that will be no easy thing.

  • AMD Launches Chip For HDTV-on-the-PC


    AMD has launched a chip offering HDTV viewing capabilities on desktop and notebook PCs around the world using analog, digital and free-to-air broadcast signals.

    The company says the ATI Theater HD 750 PC TV chip uses advanced video processing and signal reception technologies to give an authentic HD home theater feel on the PC.

    Matt Skynner, vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD Products Group, said that with the proper connectors, the chip allowed notebook users to enjoy TV on their PC virtually anywhere in the world.

    He said the ATI Theater HD 750 is compatible with HDTV/DTV/analog broadcast signals including NTSC, PAL/SECAM, ATSC, ClearQAM and DVB-T.2.

    The ATI Theater HD 750 is scheduled to be available later this year in a variety of solutions including PCI Express add-in cards, USB "stick" and others.

    Other features offered include:

    • Ability to take recorded content on the go by capturing and converting recorded TV shows into popular video formats such as H.264, AVI, MPEG, DivX, WMV and MPEG4 for use on portable media devices.
    • By using Windows Vista Media Center, Windows® XP Media Center Edition or the forthcoming Windows 7, consumers can schedule recordings and watch, pause and rewind live TV programs
    • Consumers can also store recorded programs on the PC hard drive, eliminating the problem of limited storage capacity found with most digital video recorders (DVR)

    A preview trailer is embedded below:

  • SoliCall Broadens Reach of its VoIP Voice Quality Software

    SoliCall has signed three international deals with companies from the UK, US and India for its noise reduction and echo cancellation (AEC) technology.

    The Israel-based provider of software for VoIP solutions, mobile phones and IP PBXs has developed patent pending algorithms for audio improvement.

    Shlomi Simhi, director of marketing for SoliCall, said SoliCall SDK would provide the three companies with features for audio improvement that is suitable for all VoIP applications.

    He said the new clients would be using the software for a variety of uses:

    • a British company will be implementing SoliCall SDK across its new video conferencing servers
    • a New-York based company will be using the technology for its gaming applications
    • an Indian software company will integrate the solution as part of distributed Internet-based multiparty, multimedia interactions for on-line education

    Simhi said the new deals align with SoliCall’s vision to deploy its voice quality solution on any voice platform and to ensure high standards of call quality and reliability.

    "The variety of the companies who will be using our solution both on the client side and on the server side, only emphasizes the on-going demand for our solution," he said.

    SoliCall has developed a personalized voice pass filter that identifies the voice of the speaker and extracts it from the audio signal.

    The company offers a free SoftPhone add-On for private users, which controls the filtering of the incoming audio; live graphs of the audio (before & after filtering); recording options (in WAV or in MP3 format).

  • Acer First to Make Android Netbooks


    Acer is to sell netbooks running Google’s Android operating system – with the first likely to be available before the end of the summer.

    The move is a setback for Microsoft, which was already selling its Windows OS at a reduced price to counter the threat posed by Linux.

    Making the announcement at the Computex PC trade show in Taipei, Jim Wong, Acer’s global president for IT products, said the current netbook offerings were "not close to perfection at all".

    He said if mobile Internet devices were not continually changed, consumers might not choose then any more.

    Acer recently announced that it is to launch smartphones with the Android platform later this year.

    Wong stressed that Acer will continue to use the Windows OS in its other netbooks.

    However, the cost of the Android-based devices should be less than Windows equivalents since the Linux-based Android system is free.

    Microsoft charges USD $15 for each copy of Windows XP.

    The Android netbooks will still use Intel Atom processors.

    Acer, ASUS and other netbook makers had choosen to use Linux before but had experienced high return rates for those Linux models.

    Users complained about difficulties using the OS.

    Android has promised to simplify the experience without limiting support for 3G or other extras.

  • WiMax Forum Announces Interoperability and Roaming Trials


    The first ever commercial WiMAX interoperability and roaming trials are to be carried out by 14 companies involved with the Next Generation wireless technology.

    Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum, said the testing of networks and equipment will demonstrate to all WiMAX operators that they can easily provide roaming services to their customers.

    Among the operators, device manufacturers, equipment vendors, and clearing houses taking part are Aicent, Alvarion, Bridgewater Systems, Cisco, Clearwire, Comfone, DigitalBridge Communications, Intel, iPass, Juniper Networks, MACH, Motorola, Syniverse and Transaction Network Services.

    Resnick, speaking at the Forum’s global congress in Amsterdam, said the trial represents an end-to-end test of roaming over live WiMAX networks.

    He said it will provide a baseline for establishing roaming services and agreements for WiMAX worldwide.

    "Roaming with interoperability is important in order to expand the availability of WiMAX services by enabling users to automatically access networks when traveling outside the geographical coverage area of their home network," he said.

    To date, the Forum tracks more than 475 WiMAX network deployments in 140 countries.

    The WiMAX Forum board of directors has also voted unanimously to change the pricing fee setup for its WiMAX Forum Certified program.

    It is to become a market pricing model at all six of its certification labs.

    The WiMAX Forum has 106 certified products in the market today, with a projection of at least 1,000 certified products available by 2011.

  • Online Data Backup Center Aims For Zero Carbon Footprint


    A UK-based provider of online data backups is building a technically-advanced data center powered solely by renewable energy.

    Located in North Wiltshire, WorldBackups has purchased a 2,600 sq. ft. ex-BT exchange where it will develop its own on-site renewable energy generation, passing on the reduced power costs to its customers.

    The company says it is bypassing the carbon offset route and is instead working towards a time when it won’t have a carbon footprint to counter.

    The data center is due to go live in the second quarter of 2010.

    Roland Scott, managing director of WorldBackups said pioneering technology isn’t solely the preserve of Silicon Valley or hi-tech hotspots in the UK.

    He said the company was building a completely self-sufficient data center and proving that green investment can be good business.

    "Our ethos is two-fold: a duty to make use of renewable and clean energy when we can, and also to be ready for the arrival of future environmental and compliance laws," he said.

    World Backups is developing a system that will shut down its servers at different times throughout the day and night to preserve power.

    In the case of most other data centers providing services such as website hosting and telecoms, the servers need to be turned on around the clock.

    World Backups will be able to switch off unwanted servers, even during peak times, thanks to an advanced application that recognises when extra resources are required and can fire up the necessary network space within one minute.

    The resulting cut back in the power required to run the center will make generating its energy through renewable sources on-site a viable option.

    "We intend to use renewable energy during the day and sell the excess back to a supplier of electricity that comes solely from renewable energy sources," said Scott.

    "We’ll then purchase back that renewable energy if and when it’s needed."

    Scott said that in a recession, there’s always a concern that green businesses will suffer as companies and consumers look to cut costs.

    "We believe that eco-enterprise and commercial success don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

    "’Going green’ will make us more competitive, and our customers won’t have to sacrifice backing up their valuable data during the crunch."

    World Backups’ software can be installed directly on to a server, laptop or PC to protect data such as email systems, databases, directories, office documents and pretty much all files from fire, theft, corruption and other disasters.

    Scott said its online backups are easy to implement, secure, and offer an affordable and reliable alternative to tapes. Customers are guaranteed 24/7 access to their data from anywhere with an internet connection world-wide, and don’t have to worry about mislaid tapes or IT team holidays.

    All data is encrypted before it leaves the customer’s system(s) to be replicated to WorldBackups’ data center, giving customers complete control over its security.

    In addition, data can be backed up or mirrored to a server on the customer’s own site, providing quick and easy local access should a restore be required.