By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Hardware

Want to automate things in your home like fans and lights using your PC? Two widely backed specifications are quietly battling for supremacy in the wireless home-control market: Z-Wave, a proprietary technology developed by the Norwegian firm Zensys, and ZigBee, a spec based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard backed by a consortium known as the ZigBee Alliance.

Both are low-cost, low-power wireless mesh networking technologies, and a host of new products using both were announced at this week’s CEDIA Expo 2008 in Denver, Colorado. CEDIA (the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) is a trade group consisting primarily of contractors who install high-end electronics systems (home automation, home theater, etc.) in upscale residences.

Wireless mesh networking enables low-power devices to cover a large area by acting like a bucket brigade, propagating a command from its origin (a remote control or a light switch) throughout the mesh until it reaches its intended destination. Low-power radios are used so that commands in one residence’s network don’t leak out to affect systems installed in neighboring homes.

Among the new Z-Wave products announced at CEDIA 2008, some of the most interesting include the home-security products from Black & Decker. The company was showing a line of motorized door locks (that will be marketed under the company’s Kwikset and Baldwin brands) that enable homeowners to unlock entry doors using a remote control. If the home is equipped with other Z-Wave compatible components, the door lock will be able to pass a command to a light switch to turn on the lights inside the house, relay a signal to the thermostat to turn on the HVAC system, deactivate the alarm system, and trigger a host of other actions all at the same time.

On the ZigBee front, Eaton was exhibiting new components in its Home Heartbeat line of products. The Home Heartbeat system enables you to monitor your home over the Internet, sending a text-message alert to your smartphone if a window or door is opened unexpectedly. Eaton has a wide range of other devices, too, including sensors that can detect water leaks and then trigger a valve to close to limit moisture damage.

Once all these standards get up and running, we’re looking for a phone app that will let us monitor and control things in our homes. Spiffy.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

Everybody has some form of home entertainment system. Ranging from standard televisions with mediocre DVD players to the latest high-definition LCD or plasma displays with custom built HTPC’s. Regardless of what you might have in your home right now and what you have paid for it, I bet it doesn’t even come close to some of the offerings from Life|ware.

Life|ware specializes in digital entertainment and home automation systems. These guys really got some cool stuff. Stuff that ordinary people can actually afford and might want, to stuff that ordinary people will never see in a life-time.

Check out the small gallery here!

Enter Life|media. Last year at Cedia2007 Life|ware displayed a Quad-recording Media Center with Four CableCARDs. That unit came packed with a Xeon Quad Core CPU, 4 GB RAM and 4TB of storage. All that for just $15,000! The unit is capable of recording four HD channels simultaneously while streaming HD video to four Xbox 360’s running the media center extender at the same time. During its live demonstration it was utilizing only 57% of its total processing power.

If you had a hard enough time wrapping your head around that, take a look at what Life|ware brought to Cedia2008!

The LMS-810. This time around Life|ware crammed a eight CableCARD tuners into a dual Quad Core system with 12 TB of RAID 5 storage. This baby is capable of recording all eight HD video streams at the same time it is outputting ten HD streams without breaking a sweat. One could only imagine the cost of something like this. There was no mention of price this time around however, but pricing could be similar to that of a decent new vehicle.

The average person will never need something like this, but it is a very cool and raw display of power. Now to decide, do I buy a crazy system like this and walk to work every day for the next year? Or should I just go buy a new car?

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Hardware

In addition to releasing an array of fancy new consumer electronics, Microsoft has announced that next week will see the company release updates targeted at four vulnerabilities with Windows.

All four are vulnerabilities are branded critical, and if exploited allow for remote code execution. While it may look like the number of updates is relatively small because affected programs are listed as Windows Media Player, Microsoft Encoder and Microsoft Office, it’s the fourth bulletin that just claims to affect Windows that has us worried.

According to ChannelWeb the fix will address bugs in Internet Explorer, several OS errors with both XP and Vista and problems in Microsoft .Net Framework, Microsoft Office, Digital Image Suite, Visual Studio, Visual Fox Pro, Forefront Client Security, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Following last month’s barrage of updates, the four for September seem like a drop in the ocean, however according to a report in ComputerWorld, researcher Andrew Storm says users shouldn’t expect to have an easy time with the September 9 security bulletin. Despite the fact that last month’s update contained 11 bulletins, six of them critical, the September update could be “massive.” Storm is especially interested in that the ‘Windows’ label is used as a blanket term for all programs affected in bulletin three, thinking it could be special case rather than Microsoft changing the way they inform users about critical vulnerabilities and updates.

Read the full story on ComputerWorld.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Following a certain lag in government sales, the OLPC foundation has decided to revive its Give One, Get One (aka G1G1 program) in cooperation with Amazon.

The OLPC G1G1 was initially launched last year and there was an overwhelming demand for the XO laptops. Despite the fact that bulk orders didn’t seem to be picking up, people couldn’t wait to get their hands on the OLPC machine, even if it meant buying two and giving one away. Unfortunately production delays meant that the release of the OLPC laptop was delayed, so when it did launch, there was a shortage of the notebooks.

Fast forward to when the thought of the XO laptop ever being in short supply raises an eyebrow or two, and sales are still in a slump (figures stand at around 600,000 units sold). OLPC has decided to bring back the G1G1 idea with the help of Amazon.

Matt Keller, director of Europe, Middle East and Africa at OLPC, told PC World on Wednesday that the company had decided to use an e-tailer to help run the program instead of dealing with it all single-handedly because, while there’s countless volunteers working with the association, the core group of OLPC is comprised of just 25 people.

While we don’t doubt that the taking the idea of operating through an e-tailer and running with it is a sensible idea for OLPC and the XO notebook, we’re not too sure how well the laptops are going to sell. Looking at the market, the demand for the laptops is going to be significantly lower than it was this time last year.

A year on the netbook/nettop market is almost saturated with products that are getting better and better with each launch, there simply isn’t room for an inferior model, which, when you consider the cost of purchasing two, will cost roughly the same as an Eee PC or similar. Granted the XO laptop is set to become a dual-boot machine (another attempt to boost sales) in the very near future, but for a lot of people that’s not going to be enough to convince them to go OLPC.

Amazon is set to start flogging the OLPC under the G1G1 program in late November. We can’t help but feel that getting an XO instead of an Eee or a Wind for Christmas will be like asking for a PlayStation and getting a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Apple and AT&T are now facing a third lawsuit filed by a customer who is unhappy with the iPhone 3G speeds.

We’ve heard all about the 3G coverage issues from iPhone owners. Dropped calls and intermittent coverage that yo-yos up and down despite the fact that you haven’t moved from your chair are common problems among second generation iPhoners.

Over the last few weeks we’ve already seen two people file suits against Apple for the same problems with the iPhone 3G. Both of these users said they hoped the lawsuit would be granted class action status and today’s iPhone user is no different, Eulardi Tanseco is also hoping more users will jump on his bandwagon to help fight the manufacturer and the service provider.

While each lawsuit differs slightly, they all come down to the same issue, the 3G speeds. One individual is accusing Apple of selling too many iPhones, which in turn is putting too much pressure on AT&T’s networks while another is playing the false advertising card and saying that adverts claiming the iPhone 3G is twice as fast for half the price.

We’re not sure whether or not these people will manage to successfully sue Apple or AT&T but whatever result is achieved is bound to have an impact. If Apple and AT&T come out winners on the other side there’ll be a precedent set against the people complaining that the speeds aren’t as fast as was promised. On the other hand, if Apple and/or AT&T were to lose, there’ll be a long line of customers waiting to file lawsuits of their own, once they hear they might actually win.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

Is it time to upgrade your iPod, mouse, webcam or possibly your Zune? You just might be able to make your decision in less than a week. Apple has already mentioned the release of new iPods coming soon, however they are remaining tight-lipped on the details, waiting until the “Let’s Rock” event on the morning of September 9, 2008 in San Francisco.

What is Microsoft up to? Telling us to “Say goodbye to Laser” and they are planning to announce and confirm multiple products at the same time, that’s what. Aside from the already confirmed 120GB Zune (available in Black) and possible 16GB 3rd generation, Blue Flash 2nd generation Zune, Microsoft is releasing a new mouse (or two) and two new webcam models.

The new Explorer mouse dubbed ‘Blue Track’ may be coming in two flavors – a model targeted at mobile users and a model targeted at desktop users. Originally, this new Microsoft Explorer mouse was spotted on amazon.de and yougame.it but have long since been removed. However, Google cache still has piece of this information available if you know where to look.

yougame.it product listing showing two versions of the new Microsoft Explorer ‘Blue Track’. yougame.it product information in Italian – converted to English here.

Interestingly enough, yougame.it has product codes already and had prices listed. The prices seemed a little on the high side and were listed in at approximately 50 Euro ($71) for the Microsoft Explorer Mini and 65 Euro ($93) for the standard Microsoft Explorer. Both product listings also contained an availability date of October 15, 2008 which is a Wednesday. Both are expected to be wireless.

It appears that Microsoft is also planning the release of two new webcams. The Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 and LifeCam NX-8000. A copy of the actual fact sheet for the VX-5500 is available here in German only from the Microsoft Germany site. The fact sheet mentions the cost being 60 Euro ($85). Nothing is really known yet on pricing for the NX-8000 or if it is actually going to be released.

And onto the rumors surrounding the possible release of the 3rd Generation Zune devices from Microsoft, we can only continue to speculate at this point. No hard evidence has been brought forward – maybe this is how Microsoft wants it with Apple-like secrecy and buzz. Hopefully all will be revealed on September 9.

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By Marcus Yam - Source : Tom's Hardware

China, now more than ever, wishes to become technology independent. Following the nation’s impressive show to the world at the summer Olympics in Beijing, China hopes to continue its rise.

Already producing its own automobiles, China is looking to the next industrial area for growth – technology. In particular, there is a specific reason that China is looking to make its own CPUs, and that’s because current U.S. laws prohibit the export of state-of-the-art microprocessors into certain nations. China is now looking to design its own chips so that it will not have to use generations-old hardware.

"Twenty years ago in China, we didn’t support R&D for microprocessors," said Zhiwei Xu, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Computing Technology (ICT), according to Technology Review. "The decision makers and [Chinese] IT community have come to realize that CPUs [central processing units] are important."

The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Computing Technology started design of China’s first general-purpose CPU in 2001, with the single-core chip named Godson-1 emerging the year after. The Godson-2 lived throughout 2003 to 2006, with each iteration faster than the last.

While the Godson chips are Chinese designed, they are actually manufactured by ST Microelectronics and can be bought under the commercial name of Loongson.

Like the rest of the CPU world, the next step is in multiple cores. Xu revealed during a presentation at last week’s Hot Chips conference in Palo Alto that the Godson-3 will contain four cores and is slated for completion sometime in 2009. An eight core version is also in the works, with the design currently planned for a 65nm process.

The Godson-3 is to be scalable, with more cores easily added without significant changes in design, and contain power-saving features.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade for the Godson-3 is the 200 addition instructions that will allow the Chinese chip to run x86 code. The upcoming chip hopes to dodge any license fees for Intel, as the Godson-3 will only simulate the x86 architecture.

Because of this setup, Intel patent attorney Erik Metzger believes that the Godsend-3 will only perform at 80 percent of the speed of a native x86 chip. Understandably, Intel is keeping a close eye on its x86 patents and the work of the ICT.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Guide

The number of American households watching television broadcasts on the Internet has nearly doubled since 2006, according to a new report published by the market research firms The Conference Board and TNS. According to their analysis, nearly one-fifth of American households with Internet access now use it to watch TV—and 72 percent of online households access the Internet for entertainment purposes on a daily basis.

“Most consumers are pressed for time and require flexibility in their daily schedules and TV viewing habits,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “Being able to watch broadcasts on their own time and at their convenience are clearly reasons why we are seeing a greater number turning to the Internet. And it is the reason why we expect to see this trend continue.”

Citing an ongoing “shift from appointment TV to content on demand” and the firms report that 68 percent of the online TV viewers they surveyed were streaming video over the Internet. On the other hand, only 38 percent of respondents claimed to download free video content on a regular basis. The top two online-TV destinations were “official TV channel homepages” (65 percent of respondents watch programs on sites such as NBC.com and ABC.com) and YouTube.com (capturing a staggering 41 percent of viewers). Hmm, maybe Google wasn’t so crazy for spending $1.6 billion to acquire YouTube last year.

Other video sources included Apple’s iTunes.com, Hulu.com, social networking sites (e.g., FaceBook and MySpace), and the peer-to-peer file-sharing client Limewire. BitTorrent, curiously enough, wasn’t mentioned at all. The trend doesn’t look good for online movie-download services such as Vudu, either. The market-research firms report that “few consumers are willing to enroll in pay-per-download and subscription services.”

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Last night saw the first airing of Microsoft’s Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign, and frankly, we are very confused.

The decision to hire Jerry Seinfeld to star alongside former CEO of Microsoft in a $300 million marketing campaign for Windows was largely seen as a way to combat Apple’s Mac/PC campaign. Seinfeld was reportedly paid $10 million for his part in the campaign and so far, feedback on the advert has been terrible.

People are confused, they don’t understand what it’s about, why it is what it is or how it’s supposed to change our opinion of Vista. Set in a shopping mall at a shoe shop called ‘Shoe Circus’, it sees Jerry Seinfeld aid Gates in the purchase of a pair of shoes. While we’re all agreed the questions from Jerry are pretty strange (“Have you ever worn clothes in the shower, Bill?”), what was more odd was that there hardly any mention of Microsoft at all.

While not everyone is agreed that Apple’s Mac versus PC ads are entertaining, at least they got the script right, “Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple”. Not to question the skills of Microsoft’s marketing team, but if you’re spending $300 million on a marketing campaign and not mentioning Vista, not even a recap of the Mojave experiment, then we’d be inclined to think it’s a little wasteful.

At the very end of the commercial (just when you’re thinking you couldn’t feel more awkward or confused), Seinfeld finally mentions Windows. “Are you ever going to come out with something that will make our computers moist and chewy like cake, so that we can just eat them while we’re working?” he asks. “If it’s yes, give me a signal, adjust your shorts.”

Gates does and this is the highlight of the commercial. That’s not to say seeing Bill Gates shaking his behind was enough to make me retract the “I want the last ninety seconds of my life back,” statement, but the comic relief helped. As did his $7 haircut and the notion that he shops at a discount shoe store. There it is people, Vista or shoes.

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By Marcus Yam - Source : Tom's Guide

With fuel prices where they are, it’s no surprise that the next car purchase on many minds of consumers has something to do with hybrid technology.

Both Honda and Toyota showed the auto industry that it could be done with the Insight and Prius. Unlike the Toyota solution, however, which is now the top selling hybrid in the U.S., Honda had to put its Insight from market for a rethinking.

Honda’s current fuel-miserly vehicle is the Civic Hybrid – which while good of fuel – isn’t designed from the ground-up for hybrid cleverness.

Enter the 2010 Insight, Honda’s return to the specialized hybrid segment to do battle with the Prius. A concept version of the upcoming car will be on display at the 2008 Paris Motor Show in October. And in typical Honda fashion, the concept vehicle should be a close representation of the final model.

Unlike the old Insight, which was a two-seater, the next-generation car will be a five-door, five-passenger compact hatchback, with a shape that’s not completely dissimilar to the Toyota Prius. What the new Insight will retain, however, is the gasoline and battery tandem power sources.

According to the press release, new will be a “driving support function that helps drivers make the most of its exceptional fuel economy to achieve more efficient, environmentally responsible driving,” which might be programs to curb lead-footed drivers.

The first of the new Honda Insights should be appearing in spring 2009. Best of all, it’s expected to go for $18,500, making it easy on the wallet and the environment.

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By Frank Voelkel - Source : Tom's Guide

Australian company ZipZip is offering USB thumb drives that look like Lego bricks. It has undoubtedly captured the attention of the IFA audience, as the crowd at their booth proved.

Now you can save your documents and childhood memories at the same time! On the other hand, ZipZip can only hope it won’t draw too much attention from a certain Danish company - after all, the shape of its bricks is patented. Nonetheless, the Aussie company seemed unworried when asked about this.

As with all other "designer" pieces, these too have their price. The 2 GB version costs $40 (US), while the 4 GB version comes with a hefty $59 price tag. ZipZip is staying true to the original where the colours are concerned. The memory bricks are available in red, yellow, blue, green, and black. The real question - how come Lego never came up with this idea? ZipZips memory bricks are sure to bring back some fond childhood memories to its users - which is probably also the main selling point for products of this kind. Especially considering the price.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Hardware

TiVo this week announced the launch of it’s new DVR player that offers more recording capacity than any other TiVo model.

The TiVo HD XL comes with 1 TB of space, enough for 150 hours of HD recording in comparison to the 20 hours of recorded programming users get out of the 160 GB TiVo HD. Aside from the huge increase of space, the XL is pretty much identical to the older TiVo HD, save for a few minor differences that most people would not even notice.

The release of the monster TiVo comes at a time when DVRs are becoming increasingly popular. According to Ars Technica, a survey of over 1,000 people from the U.S., UK, Italy and Australia showed that the DVR has quietly crept up the list of essential devices in the home. DVRs ranked third (surpassed by washing machines and microwaves) on people’s list of essential devices in the home in the U.S., UK and Australia. Those surveyed ranked DVRs second only to their cell phone and above MP3 players and consoles.

Statistics and numbers aside, one of the more, er, interesting (and perhaps worrying?) discoveries was that 79 percent of the Americans surveyed said the DVR improved their relationship with their significant other. Similar results were true of the other countries with the Britons surveyed scoring the lowest at 62 percent. Apparently the married population of Britain don’t argue over television all that much.

A lot of people seem to think $600 is a pretty substantial pricetag for the TiVo HD XL (compared to $300 for TiVo HD), we’d be inclined to say that twice the price for that much extra space is good value. Really good value, and if it’s going to help your marriage, we’d say buy two.

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By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Hardware

Netbooks manufactured with Windows XP have had its 80 GB HDD restriction dropped by Microsoft in favor of a 160 GB limit.

Microsoft is becoming a bit more lenient with the limits it has imposed on netbooks manufactures who wish to use Windows XP as the OS. As of Wednesday, Microsoft officially doubled the maximum allowable hard disk drive size to 160 GB, up from 80GB. MSI and Asustek already have taken action to update their Windows XP netbook offerings to feature 160 GB HDDs, which should affect the MSI Wind U100 and Asus Eee PC 1000H netbooks.

Due to the demand for Microsoft Windows XP in netbooks, Microsoft has a large amount of control over the allowed specifications of netbooks. With Microsoft wishing to push its Windows Vista operating system, it has been attempting to cut life support to Windows XP. Since netbook computers are arguably too underpowered for Windows Vista, it seems netbook manufactures have pressured Microsoft into continuing to provide Windows XP as a low-cost speedy alternative. As a compromise it seems, Microsoft has set guidelines for what are acceptable system specifications for Windows XP, limits that netbook manufactures follow faithfully. Although Linux is a viable alternative to Windows XP and it is used in some netbooks without system specification restrictions, many consumers still prefer a Windows operating system.

Some of the restrictions Microsoft have supposedly placed on netbooks include a 1 GB of RAM limit, a specific list of allowable slow CPUs, limited screen sizes, and limits on solid state drive capacities. Increasing the hard disk drive limit from 80 GB to 160 GB should have little effect on the system prices, yet it should add extra appeal to those looking to buy a netbook and increase sales of netbooks featuring HDDs, compared to those featuring SSD storage options.

Although the limits imposed by Microsoft are still tight, they meet the basic requirements needed for what a netbook has been designed for: basic, inexpensive, portable functionality.

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By Tuan Nguyen - Source : Tom's Hardware

Modding your computer to look cooler is one thing, and overclocking your processor and memory is pretty cool too. But someone has managed to stuff a fully operational desktop PC into Nintendo’s minuscule Wii.

Of course, the internals of the Wii were gutted and everything taken out. But the end result is very interesting. While the Wii is very small, similar desktops are available from companies such as Dell and Apple — like the Mac Mini and Dell Studio desktop.

Check out the gallery of the Wii PC here.

The feat of course is doing it yourself. And this guy has stuffed an Intel Celeron 1.3 GHz processor, a motherboard based on Intel’s 852 chipset, 512 MB of memory and a 40 GB hard drive. Other included accessories are integrated Wi-Fi, digital video output via a DVI connector and even three USB ports — one at the back and two where the original GameCube controller ports were.

Despite the available disc slot on the face of the Wii, he was unable to integrate an optical drive to utilize the opening. However, this is easily remedied by attaching an external optical drive. The builder also managed to stuff in two fans to keep the unit cool. Unfortunately, the fans are small and because of this, have to run at high speeds to keep the overall unit cool. However, if you were building your own miniature PC like this, you can source out small fans that don’t spin so loudly.

The "Wii PC" runs a copy of Windows XP SP3 and while it isn’t the fastest PC out there, it is certainly one of the coolest — especially if you’re a fan of Nintendo and its Wii.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

When the going gets tough in the enterprise server sector you need big processing power. Larger and more complex database systems, scientific computation and web servers demand more and more power every other day.

More power usually ends up meaning more physical hardware taking up more space. This is something that Intel is working hard towards minimizing – increase the processing power and reducing the footprint.

The last of the Penryn class enterprise processors is on the way. Boasting a huge 16MB L3 cache. This is Intel’s first step beyond four cores. The new Xeon 7400 (Dunnington) will have six cores and be the first using the new monolithic design - multiple cores on a single die. The Xeon 7400 will be socket compatible with Xeon 7300 boards which will allow for simple upgrades with little downtime.

The Xeon 7300 series were high-wattage as well, some pushing 130 watts. The new 7400 series is targeting a much lower wattage, however no solid data has been available – upon its actual release we should start to see what kind of numbers are out there in real world application.

Previous 7300 series Xeon processors weighed in at four cores and a hefty 8 MB cache and a very large price tag that ranges between $2,200 to $2,600. As no solid pricing information has been released regarding the new 7400 series, one could expect the 7400 come in little more than current 7300 pricing while 7300 series take a price slash. It would be logical to expect pricing around $2,600 to $2,800.

Enterprise processor markets have never had consistent pricing like the consumer processor market, so finding the right deal can be a lot of work for smaller businesses that wish to save a few bucks. Larger entities tend to worry more about what it can do for them as opposed to the sticker price.

Since this will be the last of this server era from Intel, it may not see much daylight as large entities are already planning their road map towards Nehalem, especially due to the architecture’s scalability. On a side note - if rumors continue to hold true, we should be seeing the Core i7 (Nehalem) line rolling out by the end of this year.

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