Dell Announces Latitude Z with Wireless Charging
You've seen ultra-thin notebooks and you've seen large-screen notebooks but never have you seen an ultra-thin large-screen notebook. Well, now you have.
Tonight, Dell is launching the world's thinnest and lightest notebook with a 16-inch display. What's more, it's the world's first notebook to incorporate wireless charging. The Latitude Z is aimed at business users and will focus on security and usability rather than outright performance.
At about 1.25 centimetres thick and weighing 2 kilograms, the svelte-looking laptop achieves its thin profile by eschewing the DVD burner altogether; it's an external module that plugs in via a USB cable. Another way Dell has managed to shed size and weight is by using solid-state drives (SSDs). The SSDs are available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities and, for the ultra paranoid, you can even have two of them in case the first one fails.
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The Latitude Z's external shell is finished in a matte "soft-touch" coating, available in a single colour called Black Cherry.
The stand-out feature, however, is its use of wireless induction charging. Instead of a cord, the Latitude Z can sit on a purpose-built stand designed to charge up its batteries without a physical connection. You'll pay for the privilege though; it will take 30 to 40 minutes longer to fully charge the battery and it's an optional extra that will set you back $395.
The Latitude Z can also recognise your face using a FaceAware feature via the built-in webcam, which locks out the notebook to other users when you step away. The 2-megapixel webcam focuses automatically and can recognise contact details on a business card. A fingerprint scanner is a given but there's also a no-contact smartcard sensor next to the touchpad that can be configured to work with certain office security passes.
Data Transfer Record Broken!
The famous lab breaks speed records at 100 petabits per second per kilometre over transoceanic distance.
Scientists at Bell Labs have broken records with a new data transfer technique that allows up to ten times the data transmission rates over long distances.
The system has achieved speeds of 100 petabits per second per kilometre over a similar distance to that between Paris and Chicago. The technology will be used to lay much faster international data cables and speed up the global network infrastructure.
“There is no question that this record breaking transmission is a milestone in achieving the network capacity and speeds and a key step forward in satisfying the ongoing explosion in demand,” said Gee Rittenhouse, head of Bell Labs Research.
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“This is a prime example of Bell Labs preeminent research and demonstrates the ability of our researchers to solve complex problems.”
The technique uses standard Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology but adds 155 lasers, each operating at a different frequency and carrying 100 Gigabits of data per second each.
Repeaters, spaced around 90km apart (around 20 per cent further than are currently used), are used to boost the signal and maintain clarity.
Bell Labs also designed receivers which can disentangle the data from the eventual signal contained in the light.
Foxtel Launches Legal TV Downloads
Foxtel has responded to intensified competition on the digital television landscape by unveiling a raft of new products, including a legal TV downloading platform.
The service, Foxtel Download, will be available at no cost to pay TV subscribers and will take 400 hours of content at launch from 38 channels. That will be expanded to 600 hours within a month.
It is intended to pave the way for a live streaming service. One channel - the sports channel ESPN360 - will be live streamed immediately. Others, including Foxtel's multi-channel coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic winter games, are expected to follow next year.
Foxtel chief executive officer Kim Williams also announced 12 new channels, LifestyleYou, a mystery channel 13th Street, Discovery Turbo Max, the Style Network, National Geographic Wild, an ad-free children's channel KidsCo, Eurosport and five new movie channels, Showtime Action, Showtime Drama, Showtime Comedy, Starpics and the Family Movie Channel.
Mr Williams said Foxtel would also expand its high-definition (HD) service to 15 channels, including three HD Fox Sports channels and ESPN HD.
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The major announcement, held in a soundstage at Sydney's Fox Studios and illustrated by an IMAX-sized movie screen, includes two new "active" red button-powered applications, a local news service, Sky News Local, and Weather Active.
Williams described Foxtel as "a revolutionary force in the television landscape". He said the company's mantra was "liberating choice to consumers" underpinned by the values of "control, choice and convenience".
Google Improves Search Engine
Google said it has enhanced its popular internet search engine to dig deeper into pages to uncover the exact tidbits of information people seek.
While typical search results provide links to websites deemed relevant to queries, Google now weaves in direct connections to spots on pages with snippets of information that might be of interest.
"We've enhanced the search snippet with two new features that make it easier to find information buried deep within a page," Chris Kern of Google's Snippet Team wrote in a blog post.
The features help by providing links to relevant sections of the page, "making it faster and easier to find what you're looking for," Kern added.
The refined snippets let searchers "jump" to information they want instead of having to scour websites listed in results, according to Google.
Official Google Blog: Seeing the world with improved Google Search results
Microsoft’s Secret Tablet
It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet. But maybe we've all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft's astonishing take on the tablet.
Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They're connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.
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Until recently, it was a skunkworks project deep inside Microsoft, only known to the few engineers and executives working on it—Microsoft's brightest, like Entertainment & Devices tech chief and user-experience wizard J. Allard, who's spearheading the project. Currently, Courier appears to be at a stage where Microsoft is developing the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies.
Intel Shows Off New 32nm CPU
The new chip has graphics capability built into the core processor, a first for Intel, and has new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) instructions also built in for faster encryption and decryption. The new chip will go into production in the fourth quarter of the year.
“The rapidly increasing number of transistors and processor instructions we add have made possible the integration of more and more capabilities and features within our processors,” he said.
“This has driven an incredible amount of innovation throughout the industry.”
Maloney will also be showing the Westmere-EP server platform and said that it would provide a performance boost greater than that seen with the introduction of the Xeon 5500 series of server chips over the previous generation.
Intel is also working on an ultra-low power server chip in the Xeon 3000 range, which will operate at just 30 watts.
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As a follow up to Westmere the next generation chip, codenamed Sandy Bridge, will see an acceleration in graphics capabilities for the chip, with Intel's sixth generation graphics core built into the die. This will accelerate floating point, video and processor intensive software applications.
To help IT administrators Intel has developed a new PC management tool called Keyboard Video Mouse Remote Control, which allows managers to view problems directly as the user sees them, which it hopes will speed up fault solving.
California Proposes Ban on High-Energy TV’s
California has 35 million television sets — one for nearly every man, woman and child — and television use in the Golden State accounts for 10% of each home's energy bill. Alarmed that state energy consumption would spike as consumers switch from the old cathode-ray-tube sets to the new, energy-gobbling flat screen liquid-crystal display (LCD) or plasma televisions, the state's regulatory mavens have formally proposed regulations that would force the industry to make more energy-efficient models.
Following a 45-day public comment period and a vote by the powerful California Energy Commission in November, the first-in-the-nation TV efficiency standards would go into effect in January 2011 and would require televisions sold in California to use 50% less energy by January 2013. Strict-target limits on greenhouse gas emissions for 2020 are propelling policymakers to cut consumption of energy and increase renewable generation.
See the Top 10 Green Ideas of 2008.
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The Consumer Electronics Association argues the proposed regulations will result in a loss of sales and jobs. "We think this is the wrong paradigm to actually achieve energy efficiency," said Doug Johnson, senior director for technology policy for the industry association...
End of the iPod era
This month, Apple released an upgrade to its iPod line. But amid the hype surrounding its careful marketing and intentional secrecy about the content of the launch, a different truth is emerging: that we are seeing the twilight of the stand-alone digital music player (DMP), a product category little more than 10 years old.
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That does not mean digital music players will vanish. Quite the opposite: the sector is still growing. Increasingly, though, the products have some sort of connectivity — whether wi-fi, mobile phone, Bluetooth or all three.
But if you look closely, signs the stand-alone player is in decline are all around. The first, and most obvious, was Apple's announcement in its latest quarterly results that iPod sales fell year-on-year for the first time since the product's launch in October 2001. As the iPod dominates the market for DMPs, any drop in its sales indicates a fall in the market.
Apple Unveils new iPods
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Apple has unveiled its new iPod range. It includes an iPod nano with basically the same appearance as the previous generation but it has a video camera and the shell is made of polished aluminium making it nice and shiny. It also features a slightly larger screen (2.2") and built in FM radio with Live Pause, an inbuilt pedometer, inbuilt microphone for voice memos and the same Voice Over feature which says the name of the song you are listening to as the iPod shuffle.
Apple also has introduced new colours (including polished steel) for its iPod Shuffle as well as lowering the price of its iPod touch to AU$268 and introducing a new 64Gb model for A$549 and featuring the same voice control system as the iPhone and including the Apple earphones with the remote and mic attached.
As well as this, the new version of iTunes was announced. It includes an iTunes store redesign and a new feature called iTunes LP which allows artists to include interactive features with albums such as lyrics, album info etc. here is a full list of all the new features:
http://www.apple.com/au/itunes/whats-new/
The capacity of the iPod Classic has been upped to 160GB instead of the 120Gb.
Review: Kaspersky Internet Security 2010
Introduction
Kaspersky has recently released its 2010 internet security suite. Yes, it is a bit early but none the less it is an excellent product it has a new interface and few new features and one of the best things is that anyone who already has a subscription to the internet suite gets the upgrade for FREE! Bad news is if you don't already have it, it will cost you about $50 per year
Pros
- Slick new interface
- Small footprint
- Lots of customisability options
- Virtual keyboard
Cons
- Causes a few network issues
- Sometimes stops working
- Deep scan option takes a lot of CPU power and slows the computer down significantly
Overview
Kaspersky's products have typically been some of the best anti virus products on the market. This new suite is no exception. It is easy to use, and will detect almost every virus on your computer if you have one. It will detect viruses with other suites won't pick up and has heaps of features.
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