» usb 3.0: the new speed limit
developed by the usb implementers forum (usb-if), usb 3.0's superspeed specification promises a theoretical top speed of 5gbit/sec. versus usb 2.0's 480mbit/sec.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/190672/usb_30_the_new_speed_limit.html

» amd tries to draw intel into chip battle
advanced micro devices is offering prizes to drum up more interest ahead of this month's launch of its 12-core server chip, as rival intel also has server-chip launch plans. amd will award prizes valued at us$8,189 to the person who best describes in an essay, video or blog post how to use 48 cores in a server, according to a blog entry by john fruehe, director of product marketing for servers and workstations products at amd. the prizes are a copy of windows server 2008 and four opteron 12-core processors running at 2.2 ghz, which adds up to 48 cores in a four-socket server.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100305/tc_pcworld/amdtriestodrawintelintochipbattle

» intel shows off 48 cores
intel demoed its experimental 48 core chip at cebit this morning as it (almost) nailed down the dates for its latest real world server chips. the vendor has been touting the 48 core part around as part of its vision of massively parallel systems. it describes it as a single chip cloud.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/02/intel_cores_server/

» amd to ship first six-core desktop processor in q2
advanced micro devices on tuesday said its first six-core processor for desktops will ship in the second quarter of this year. the processor will be called phenom ii x6, an amd spokesman said. the company displayed a working unit of the chip in a desktop at the cebit trade show being held in hanover, germany.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/030210-amd-to-ship-first-six-core.html?hpg1=bn

» intel: six-core, 32nm chips to launch early this year
intel yesterday announced that it is preparing six-core chips for high-end desktops and servers for release in the first half of 2010. the six-core intel chips will be based on the company's latest westmere architecture and deliver faster performance and more power savings compared to earlier quad-core chips, intel said on a conference call. the chips will contain 1.17 billion transistors and include 12mb of cache, a company spokesman said.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=3211900&

» nine out of 10 premium-priced pcs sold at us retail is a mac
windows 7 did little to slow the mac's sales trajectory during fourth quarter, according to npd. year over year, apple doubled us retail unit share -- from 5 percent to 10 percent -- for pcs selling between $500 and $1,000. more startling, apple increased its unit share from 79 percent to 90 percent in the market for "premium" pcs, meaning those selling for more than $1,000.
http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Nine-out-of-10-premiumpriced-PCs-sold-at-US-retail-is-a-Ma...

» apache terminates 'outdated' web server
the apache software foundation has released http sever 1.3.42, saying this is the final release of the 1.3 branch, and there will be no more updates except for critical security fixes.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/04/apache_retires_web_server/

» who knew? 99% of available bittorrent files violate copyright
princeton professor ed felten over at the freedom to tinker blog explores a survey his students recently completed on bittorrent file availability that found, not surprisingly, that a significant majority of the content available violates copyrights. again, this is what's available, not necessarily what's being actively downloaded, the survey taking a random, 1021-file sample of files available via the trackerless variant of bittorrent, using the mainline dht. of that data, just ten of the files, or approximately 1% were likely to be non-infringing
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Who-Knew-99-Of-Available-BitTorrent-Files-Violate-Copyright-10668...

» google joins the 'kill-ie6' campaign
google has announced that google docs will drop support for microsoft's nearly nine-year-old internet explorer 6 (ie6) browser starting on march 1.
http://www.itworld.com/internet/94823/google-joins-kill-ie6-campaign

» at&t to invest $2b in mobile network
at&t said thursday that it will invest an additional $2 billion in its network in 2010 to make sure it keeps up with the growing demand from new smartphones and other 3g data devices, such as the apple ipad, on its network.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/29/att.network.boost/index.html

» facebook: a tempting danger zone for businesses
a new study from security research firm sophos finds that malware and spam attacks delivered through social networks rose significantly in 2009, and facebook is perceived as the most dangerous social net of them all. at the same time, however, many businesses see social networking as a prime marketing tool that they're hesitant to ignore.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Facebook-A-Tempting-Danger-Zone-for-Businesses-69253.html

» iphone os 3.1.3 released; jailbreakers beware
it’s hundredth’s decimal place indicates that this update isn’t that significant and it’s most likely been completed for a while but apple was holding it until after the ipad announcement. be warned though: it’s certain to break your iphone’s unlock and/or jailbreak, so keep that in mind too
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=5933

» facebook re-write takes php to an enterprise past
facebook's re-written php to transform the dynamic language for fast performance on web-scale server farms without adding additional hardware. the site's engineers have announced hiphop, which turns the popular and dynamic php code into highly optimized but static c++ and then compiles it using the gnu c++ compiler, g++. the change has been released to the community under the php license
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/02/facebook_hiphop_unveiled/

» google dreaming up chrome os tablets
google has conceptual images for what a chrome os-based tablet computer user interface might look like at its open source chromium projects site. the images actually went up a couple of days before apple made its big ipad splash last week. meanwhile, apple ceo steve jobs has followed up that announcement with some tough talk regarding google and its efforts to horn in on apple's iphone business with android, so google's tablet efforts are sure to get jobs' attention as well.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/020210-google-chromeos-tablet.html?hpg1=bn

» conficker worm cripples a u.k. police department
the conficker worm is alive and well and has shut down the police network in manchester,united kingdom, for the past three days. after one year, conficker infects 7 million computers.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/020210-conficker-worm-police-networks.html?hpg1=bn

» web sites must support ipv6 by 2012, expert warns
corporations and government agencies must ipv6-enable their public-facing web sites in the next 24 months or risk upsetting a growing number of visitors with lower-grade connectivity.
https://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/012110-ipv6-warning.html

» at&t adds 2.7m wireless customers, beating verizon
maybe at&t's new slogan should be "more books in more places." the phone company added a near-record 2.7 million wireless customers in the last quarter, defying expectations with the help of new e-reading devices.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9DGRAF00.htm?

» apple lets 3g voip onto iphone
apple is now allowing voip-over-3g apps, after a change to the new beta version 3.2 of its iphone sdk, released yesterday in concert with the announcement of cupertino's long-awaited ipad.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/28/voip_over_3g_for_iphone/

» adobe sounds off on ipad's flash slap
apple claims that its just-announced ipad "lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen," but adobe's group manager for flash marketing isn't buying it.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/28/adobe_disses_ipad/