By Scott M. Fulton, III , Betanews On the surface, it might sound like one of those amateurish conclusions a blogger might reach after having just read the press release: Symantec, a software company now mainly known for security products, acquires some assets from a non-competitor in order to get that company's logo. But in the deal between Symantec and VeriSign announced yesterday, there is no mistaking the fact that the antivirus products maker acquired, among other things, the single asset that just last week VeriSign argued was the ticket to its own future stability: quite literally, its own logo[......]
Archive for May, 2010
We're big fans of the Das Keyboard, a mechanical plank with oh-so-satisfying key action and a pair of USB ports. Adesso's latest gaming keyboard , the MKB-135B, also sports mechanical keys and two USB ports, but kicks it up a notch by tossing audio jacks into the mix[......]
As power users, we sometimes forget how intimidating the BIOS can be to a new or inexperienced user. [......]
Facebook and YouTube are now both banned in Pakistan , and as you might have guessed, the beef stems from caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed appearing on the social sites, according to an AP report. "We strongly condemn the publication of blasphemous caricatures of our holy Prophet on Facebook," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters in the capital Islamabad. [......]
Sound like an orc with the best World of Warcraft headset money can buy Normally, designing a headset for one specific game would limit you to a relatively small segment of the gaming community. [......]
By Scott M. Fulton, III , Betanews Prior to Google's announcement earlier today of its open sourcing the VP8 video codec , a spokesperson for MPEG LA -- the licensing agent that manages the patent portfolio for multimedia technologies relating to the H.264 codec, among others -- agreed to answer ten questions submitted to the agency in advance. Those questions regard how it licenses the codec that Microsoft and Apple consider the best solution for HTML 5, the next markup language for the Web. [......]
By Scott M. Fulton, III , Betanews In a pair of blog posts released simultaneously this afternoon, Microsoft's Internet Explorer General Manager, Dean Hachamovitch, walked on eggshells in explaining why his group is staying the course with respect to its decision on the H.264 codec in IE9. This in the wake of Google's historic move today to release the VP8 video codec it acquired under a full open source license under the umbrella title WebM, even though it could mean legal action against Google down the road. [......]
Wouldn't it be great if you could combine the speed of a flash-based drive with the capacity of a mechanical hard drive? Why yes, it would be, but don't get your hopes up too high. It's true Seagate is preparing a new series of hybrid drives that will combine NAND flash memory with HDD platters, but these aren't taking the extremes of either technology and meshing them into a single unit. [......]
By Scott M. Fulton, III , Betanews This afternoon, Google has opted for the most daring option available to it: It is making available both the technology and the source code for the VP8 codec it acquired, in its buyout of On2 Technologies, to a separate entity. That entity, the newly formed WebM Project , will then serve as a licensing agent on Google's behalf for the VP8 video codec, the Vorbis audio codec, and the Matroska multimedia container, for royalty-free use, apparently in both free and commercial video. [......]
By Scott M. Fulton, III , Betanews Customer relationship management (CRM) software has typically fallen outside the realm that Betanews has covered, at least in recent years. It falls outside the realm a lot of publications cover, not because it's the least bit obscure or unimportant or even a segment of the information industry around which billions of dollars in invested capital revolve, but because it isn't usually the stuff around which soap operas are based. [......]
Intel this week said it has begun shipping its 25nm NAND flash memory to customers, which represents the world's smallest, most advanced process technology. The new chips were first sampled back in February and will replace Intel's 34nm parts found in the company's second-gen X25-M SSD, as well as a handful of other products. "The 8 gigabyte (GB) 25nm NAND flash memory chip measures just 167mm2 and can hold up to 2,000 songs, 7,000 photos or 8 hours of video," Intel said[......]
Total touch screen shipments increases 29 percents year-over-year in 2009 to settle in at 606 million units, according to market research firm DisplaySearch, which just released its Touch Panel Market Analysis report. "Touch screen penetration has been rapidly increasing in mobile phone, PMP/MP3, portable navigation, and other applications. [......]
Following the acquisition of Palm last month, Hewlett Packard (HP) wasted no time in scrapping its much hyped Windows 7-based Slate project, sparking speculation that HP would putting its newly acquired webOS platform to good use in a tablet form factor. Well, we don't have to speculate anymore. During HP's quarterly financial call, company CEO Mark Hurd has confirmed that his HP plans to release webOS devices "beyond smartphones into form factors such as slates and web-connected printers." And just like that, we can be excited about HP's tablet plans all over again. [......]
Data security specialist Imperva on Tuesday announced the availability of its SecureSphere Virtual Appliances data security suite. With this release, Imperva promises fast and flexible deployment. "Today's secure datacenters aren't all virtual or all iron alliances – having the flexibility to choose virtual or hardware solutions based on their particular business and risk needs is what is really needed," said Gartner Research Vice President Greg Young [......]
It's never easy saying goodbye, and though we never play favorites, we can't help but be a little saddened by BFG's departure from the graphics card market. That's right folks, the company that pretty much kick started the concept of lifetime warranties for videocards will no longer be slapping together GPUs and PCBs[......]
