Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Planning on building that new gaming rig? Here’s some good news. Putting pressure on rival chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel has surprisingly halved the prices on its Core 2 Quad Q6700 (from $530 to $266) and Quad-Core Xeon X3230 (from $530 to $266). Overall, fourteen processors experienced a price cut, ranging from 12% to 50% off. Other CPUs with slashed prices include the Core 2 Quad Q6600 (from $266 to $244), Core 2 Duo E6850 (from $266 to $183), Dual-Core Xeon 3085 (from $366 to $188), Celeron 560 (from $134 to $107) and more. All prices reflect 1,000 unit shipments. The reason for the discounted prices is Intel’s transition from their 65nm to 45nm process. All of the chips on sale are based off of the old 65nm technology. AMD announced its plans to begin shipping their 45nm chips in fourth quarter 2008, which puts them one year behind Intel, who began selling their 45nm CPUs back in November 2007.

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Starbucks is furthering their partnering with Apple to offer customers free music by announcing the launch of “Pick of the Week.” At more than 7,000 Starbucks locations, the new promotional program provides customers a “world-class digital discovery experience”. Every Tuesday, Pick of the Week download cards will be handed out to coffee drinkers giving them the opportunity to hop online and download a complimentary song or music video from iTunes. Artists include Carly Simon, Duffy, Counting Crows, Adele, Sia, and Hilary McRae to name a few. Each song and music video will be handpicked by the Starbucks Entertainment team and iTunes. Once handed out, each download card will have an expiration of 60 days. The first free song to be available for download is the Counting Crows’ “Washington Square.”

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If you have not yet made the switch to Windows Vista and are still running XP, Microsoft has Service Pack 3 (SP3) waiting for you just around the corner. After three years since the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft plans on unleashing its delayed SP3 to the public. PC manufacturers and volume license customers will be given access to SP3 on April 21, while the rest of the public will be able to download the new update on on April 29, via Windows Update and Microsoft’s website. By June 10, the company intends to force the update on all XP users through Windows’ Automatic Update. Feature wise, SP3 adds only minor improvements, mostly improving security and network related capabilities. Nothing major.

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Let’s face it, Microsoft Office is one mighty expensive software package. Costing hundreds of dollars for each Office iteration, it makes upgrading to the latest MS Office a difficult and sometimes impossible task. Not everyone can afford paying hundreds of dollars every few years. Fortunately, Microsoft is attempting to make it easier for users to migrate to the latest and future versions of its highly popular productivity suite. Currently in private beta testing, Microsoft’s “Albany” program is a subscription based model of Office. Specifically, Albany bundles Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (containing Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote), Office Live Workspaces, Windows Live OneCare (online virus and firewall service), Windows Live Mail, Messenger, and Photo Gallery all into one package with one single installer.

Unfortunately, details regarding the program are sparse; whether the subscription model will be monthly or annual remains unknown. Pricing is also unknown. Microsoft is quick to point out that the subscription-based model is not the “next” version of Office. Instead, its a new way of experiencing and purchasing Office. Interestingly, the company has announced that each subscription is valid for up to three computers, allowing families with multiple computers to share one single subscription.

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After all the cries and complaints over Apple’s deceptive ploy to boost its web browser market share by installing its Safari browser on Windows PCs as part of an “update”, the company has now made a slight change to its latest Software Update. The new Software Update 2.1 now provides two categories: ‘Updates’ and ‘New Software’. So, instead of of deceiving Windows users by listing Safari as an “update” to existing software, the Software Update 2.1 now clearly marks Safari as brand new software. However, the install check box is still marked by default, but users can uncheck the box should they not want Apple’s web browser.

Mozilla’s CEO John Lilly, the most vocal critic of Apple’s sneaky Safari install, calls the new update “a good change” but he says he’d like to see Apple “do a bit more”, hinting that the company should unmark the install check box by default.

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a new nationwide warning system that utilizes cell phone SMS to alert the public of emergencies. Called the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), only three types of emergencies will be relayed to the public: a disaster (such as a terrorist attack), immanent or on going threats (such as earthquakes), or child abductions (Amber Alerts). The new program is not mandatory, but T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon have announced their willingness to participate in the new warning system. The FCC has been working with the carriers as part of the Commercial Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC) for coming up with the technical requirements for CMAS. The FCC is giving the mobile phone operators the freedom to design and implement their own infrastructure for deploying the system. The only restriction is that the participating carriers must comply with the requirements and complete their construction within 10 months.

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Do you still use “rabbit ears” to watch your television shows? Was your TV manufactured before March 2007? If so, in case you weren’t aware, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to move all TV broadcasting into the digital spectrum, thus making all analog TV receivers inoperable after February 17, 2009 without a digital converter box. To help spread the news, the FCC is making it mandatory for retailers to inform consumers of the plan to switch from analog to digital signal by labeling televisions that would be obsolete in the new year. Unfortunately, some retailers like Wal-Mart, Sears, Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City (among others) have forgotten to the apply the “consumer alert” label to applicable analog television equipment. As a result, the FCC has issued $3.9 million in fines to the offending stores after warning them 30 days in advance.

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Just when flash-based solid state drives are becoming the norm, IBM has developed a new type of solid state memory, dubbed “Racetrack”, that pretty much makes flash memory look obsolete. The new technology uses spintronics, which uses the spin of electrons to encode data rather than the electrons’ charge. The bits of data are stored in the magnetic domain walls along the silicon nanowire, or racetrack, thus allowing for super fast data transfers. The method allows for more energy efficient, faster, larger, and cheaper solid state memory—all while maintaining the same amount of “space” of current drives. In fact, according to IBM, the new Racetrack memory is capable of reading and writing data in less than a nanosecond and could provide up to 100x more storage than currently available drives on the market.

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It appears Cyberlink has finally heard the news that Blu-ray has won the HD format wars. In response, the company has announced that its latest movie playback software, PowerDVD Ultra, will now support Blu-ray, including the latest BD-Live Profile 2.0. BD-Live allows for additional downloadable content for Blu-ray discs, including interactive games, movie trailers, ringtones, and more.

For $99.95, PowerDVD Ultra will not only play HD movies on your computer, but will also feature HD audio (Dolby Digital/TrueHD and DTS-HD), HDMI input support, and DivX, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264), WMV-HD, and AVCHD playback. Interestingly, Cyberlink didn’t stop there and decided to add a little social network feature by including Movie Remix and MoovieLive. Movie Remix allows you to make your own version of movies and share them online. You can re-order movie scenes, add subtitles, add voice commentary, and overlay animated graphics. MoovieLive lets users connect to MoovieLive.com to download or upload remixes, write/read movie reviews, and check movie stats.

Product [Cyberlink] Via [I4U News]

• Cyberlink announces new TrueTheater technologies at CES 2009

Sony sure knows how to make pretty things. Case in point, the new Sony Bravia E4000 series of HDTV’s can be easily mistaken as a digital picture frame to the untrained eye. In fact, the E4000 is both a digital frame and a HDTV. When turned off, the panels can act as a digital photo viewer, capable of loading photos from a thumb drive. If you don’t have any favorite photos handy to display, the TV comes pre-loaded with six works of art, including Pop Art and Van Gogh paintings. The new line will be available in 26-inch, 32-inch and 40-inch sizes. Spec-wise, the panels will feature: the Bravia 2 processing engine, Bravia Sync, integrated digital/HDTV tuner, 178 degree viewing angle, 24p True Cinema, and 3x HDMI ports. The 32-inch and 40-inch will include a stand and full HD 1080p resolution; however, the 40-inch will be the only model to sport a 10-bit panel. x.v.Color for enhanced color reproduction, and PhotoTV HD for more “lifelike” photo slideshows.

The Sony Bravia E4000 will come in a few frame colors: midnight sky, aluminum, pearly white and dark walnut. It is expected to launch in Europe in a few weeks.

Via [Tech Digest]

• Cyberlink announces new TrueTheater technologies at CES 2009