By Elizabeth Montalbano, January 06, 2009
Attendees of the International Conference on Cyber Security 2009 in New York Tuesday were reminded of the shortcomings of Windows Vista a day before Microsoft is expected to reveal the first beta for its follow-up, Windows 7. Microsoft Investigative Consultant Michael Dunner asked attendees how many of them have used Vista as he gave a presentation on the security differences between that OS and Windows 7. When people in the audience raised their hands, Dunner then asked, "How many of you like it?" Only about half of those who acknowledged using Vista raised their hands. Dunner also called Vista's UAC (User Account Control) feature "annoying" and one of its "biggest problems," to which one audience member responded, "Yes, it is annoying." Problems with UAC have been widely publicized and even spoofed by television commercials from competitor Apple. The feature was meant to improve the security of Vista by preventing users without administrative privileges from making unauthorized changes to a PC. But because of how it was set up, it can prevent even authorized users from being able to access applications and features through a series of screen prompts that interrupt normal user workflow to ask for account privileges.
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Something Neo from AMD
Low-power CPU not for netbooks
By Paul Taylor Tuesday, 6 January 2009
ALTHOUGH MANY punters were expecting AMD to launch an Atom-smasher, things haven't really turned out as they forecast. The company has launched the AMD Athlon Neo, but for all intents and purposes, isn't aiming at the Netbook market... at least not directly. According to AMD, the Athlon Neo will populate the ultraportable, ultrathin segment where users are willing to drop a bit more dosh for the improved performance and user experience. Netbooks, at least the ones currently on the market, target the sub-$500 market (except where SSD options kick in). The 12-inch market is the sweet spot, although AMD considers it'll be popular in +/- an inch size lapwarmers. The Neo will fit all bills in the ultralight market, ranging from $499 to $1499. Not exactly a Netbook is it? The specs come listed as: built on a 65nm process runs at 1.6GHz (8x200MHz), sporting 512KB of L2 cache, DDR2-667 and drawing 15W of power. It runs on a M690 chipset with the HT @ 3.6GHz. The system itself will have either the X1250 IGP (M690 chipset, DX9.0, SM2.0b, 90nm, 64MB dedicated+256MB shared) or a discrete HD 3400-series (DX10.1, DDR2, 64-bit memory interface) for the higher end parts. However, we're not quite sure why we'd need 1080p on a 12-inch display - this might just hint at HDMI being a solid possibility as a video output option. Comparing it to the Atom is inevitable - if not to prove it isn't a direct competitor: Albeit built on last year's technology, the Athlon Neo is supposed to be much more powerful than the Atom... anywhere between 100-150% according to AMD's numbers, but on average 36% more expensive. They're also saying 4-8 hour battery life depending on the battery.
Read more here -->Link
By Paul Taylor Tuesday, 6 January 2009
ALTHOUGH MANY punters were expecting AMD to launch an Atom-smasher, things haven't really turned out as they forecast. The company has launched the AMD Athlon Neo, but for all intents and purposes, isn't aiming at the Netbook market... at least not directly. According to AMD, the Athlon Neo will populate the ultraportable, ultrathin segment where users are willing to drop a bit more dosh for the improved performance and user experience. Netbooks, at least the ones currently on the market, target the sub-$500 market (except where SSD options kick in). The 12-inch market is the sweet spot, although AMD considers it'll be popular in +/- an inch size lapwarmers. The Neo will fit all bills in the ultralight market, ranging from $499 to $1499. Not exactly a Netbook is it? The specs come listed as: built on a 65nm process runs at 1.6GHz (8x200MHz), sporting 512KB of L2 cache, DDR2-667 and drawing 15W of power. It runs on a M690 chipset with the HT @ 3.6GHz. The system itself will have either the X1250 IGP (M690 chipset, DX9.0, SM2.0b, 90nm, 64MB dedicated+256MB shared) or a discrete HD 3400-series (DX10.1, DDR2, 64-bit memory interface) for the higher end parts. However, we're not quite sure why we'd need 1080p on a 12-inch display - this might just hint at HDMI being a solid possibility as a video output option. Comparing it to the Atom is inevitable - if not to prove it isn't a direct competitor: Albeit built on last year's technology, the Athlon Neo is supposed to be much more powerful than the Atom... anywhere between 100-150% according to AMD's numbers, but on average 36% more expensive. They're also saying 4-8 hour battery life depending on the battery.
Read more here -->Link
New HP Pavilion notebooks go for style, go with AMD
By Sharon Fisher, January 6, 2009
HP has had a reputation for delivering sturdy, competent, but unexciting hardware without a lot of pizzazz in the marketing department. As folks used to say, if HP was selling sushi, they'd market it as "cold, dead fish." Well, somewhere along the line, Hewlett-Packard appears to have swallowed a marketing person, because the press releases for their new line of Pavilion notebooks -- including a competitor to Apple's slimmer-than-slim "Air" -- all gush about how stylish they are. Stylish? HP? The dv2 and dv3 are each marketed as "entertainment" notebooks. The dv2 is less than one inch thick and starts at 3.8 pounds, with a 12.1-inch screen and "a nearly full-size keyboard," which might be worth paying attention to if you're ham-handed. It has hard drive options of up to 500 GB and runs on AMD's all-new Athlon Neo Processor (which AMD may have wanted to announce in a few days, though HP had other plans).
Read on -->Link
Also read --> Lenovo intros multimedia PCs for gaming, dual-screen laptop ... By Jacqueline Emigh
HP has had a reputation for delivering sturdy, competent, but unexciting hardware without a lot of pizzazz in the marketing department. As folks used to say, if HP was selling sushi, they'd market it as "cold, dead fish." Well, somewhere along the line, Hewlett-Packard appears to have swallowed a marketing person, because the press releases for their new line of Pavilion notebooks -- including a competitor to Apple's slimmer-than-slim "Air" -- all gush about how stylish they are. Stylish? HP? The dv2 and dv3 are each marketed as "entertainment" notebooks. The dv2 is less than one inch thick and starts at 3.8 pounds, with a 12.1-inch screen and "a nearly full-size keyboard," which might be worth paying attention to if you're ham-handed. It has hard drive options of up to 500 GB and runs on AMD's all-new Athlon Neo Processor (which AMD may have wanted to announce in a few days, though HP had other plans).
Read on -->Link
Also read --> Lenovo intros multimedia PCs for gaming, dual-screen laptop ... By Jacqueline Emigh
$199 Netbooks Without Intel Inside
by Kevin Parrish January 6, 2009
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. However, Freescale Semiconductor's upcoming i.MX515 processor, based on the ARM chip architecture, should defy that belief, offering 1GHz speeds for under $200. The company plans to showcase the new silicon this week at CES, hoping to wow consumers with its low-power, gigahertz performance. Freescale, once a chipmaking arm of Motorola, doesn't consider its latest product as an attempt to compete with Intel. Rather, the company wants to remain on the lower-priced spectrum while offering admirable speed for consumers. “We see a huge opportunity in the netbook market as consumers demand more cost-effective and higher performing solutions,” said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Networking and Multimedia Group. “Our solution for netbooks will enable OEMs to develop compelling products that feature cell phone-like battery life at extremely aggressive price points. We believe the combination of the i.MX515 processor and related enablement solutions will dramatically accelerate the evolution of this exciting new space.”
Read more here -->Link
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. However, Freescale Semiconductor's upcoming i.MX515 processor, based on the ARM chip architecture, should defy that belief, offering 1GHz speeds for under $200. The company plans to showcase the new silicon this week at CES, hoping to wow consumers with its low-power, gigahertz performance. Freescale, once a chipmaking arm of Motorola, doesn't consider its latest product as an attempt to compete with Intel. Rather, the company wants to remain on the lower-priced spectrum while offering admirable speed for consumers. “We see a huge opportunity in the netbook market as consumers demand more cost-effective and higher performing solutions,” said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Networking and Multimedia Group. “Our solution for netbooks will enable OEMs to develop compelling products that feature cell phone-like battery life at extremely aggressive price points. We believe the combination of the i.MX515 processor and related enablement solutions will dramatically accelerate the evolution of this exciting new space.”
Read more here -->Link
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