By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Guide

A lawsuit brought against several Apple executives and directors by Apple’s stockholders, representing Apple, looks to soon be coming to a close with a settlement of $14 million, paid for by the board’s insurer.

Apple found itself in the middle a financial controversy two years ago as top executives of the company, including Steve Jobs, were accused of alleged illegal backdating of stock options awards.

The current lawsuit was brought on by shareholders on behalf of the company over the alleged damage the company suffered due to the controversy, with the Apple executives and board members now having made a preliminary deal to settle this issue. According to the Associated Press, insurers representing Apple’s board will pay Apple $14 million and reform part of its stock option plan with the settlement expected to get final approval on October 31, finally putting the the issue behind the company. The settlement for Apple comes at the expense of nearly $9 million in attorney fees and other expenses.

A stock option is essentially a form of non-cash payment for employees, often being executives, made up of common company stock offered by the company as an incentive to benefit both company and executive. If the executive performs well, the executive, the stockholders and the company will benefit from the increased company stock value. Options backdating is the practice of modifying the date of those issued stock options to a date back before when it was actually issued. Since stocks are valued differently at different dates, by making it seem as if the stocks were issued at a time when the value of the stocks were low, the stocks would essentially be issued at a discounted price.

While options backdating is not necessary illegal, not properly claiming that stocks were backdated is against regulations as it could mislead the company’s investors with inflated financial reports — and the practice could go against the stockholder’s wishes.

Apple was brought under investigation for such improper practices by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and charges were laid in 2007 against Apple’s former CFO Fred Anderson and general counsel Nancy Heinen. Steve Jobs was allegedly granted 7.5 million backdated stock options in 2001, among other top company executives, yet Apple defended their visionary leader claiming that, while he was aware of or even recommended the backdating practices, he did not benefit from the practices or appreciate its accounting implications. Apple corrected the $84 million error in its reported profits and was cleared of wrong doing.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

T-Mobile could be launching its first Android handset as soon as 23 September, according to a report in Reuters.

At the end of August, rumors kicked off about the release of the first Android-based handset. T-Mobile announced in the second week of August that its first phone running the Android OS would be manufactured by HTC. Dubbed the HTC Dream or the G1, the phone was approved by the Federal Communications Commission about a week later, meaning the phone could be released anytime thereafter.

Speculation that Google wouldn’t make its end of year promises for an Android handset now blown out of the water, rumors started to do the rounds about launch dates for the phone, not at all dissimilar to the rumors surrounding Apple’s 3G iPhone release. People began to throw dates around that suggested sometime in early October or late September.

A very short report from Reuters, citing “people familiar with the matter,” claims consumers will see a T-Mobile handset running the Google OS on September 23. Reuters’ sources also said that T-Mobile and Google would be making an announcement in New York City sometime this week. With the week nearly over, we’re expecting this announcement either today or tomorrow so keep your eyes peeled and we’ll update as soon as we know anything more.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Hardware

Need a new videocard, but don’t have the Benjamins—or the need—for a high-end model? Take a look at some of the new budget cards, such as AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4600 series: AMD’s latest videocards promise to deliver decent gaming performance—and 512 MB frame buffers—for as little as $69

AMD has so far announced two SKUs in this series: The Radeon HD 4650 ($69) and the Radeon HD 4670 ($79). The company plans to ship a third model, which will be outfitted with 1GB of memory, later this month. Both announced cards have the same GPU, which boasts 320 stream-processing units, but a relatively narrow 128-bit memory interface (AMD’s pricier parts have 256-bit memory interfaces, and Nvidia’s top-end GPU has a 512-bit memory interfaces). The 4650’s core clock speed will be set at 600 MHz (compared to the 4670’s 750 MHz).

This is one case where overclocking the cheaper card to achieve the same performance as the more expensive model isn’t going to work: The higher-priced 4670 features GDDR3 memory clocked at 1GHz, but the cheaper model rolls with GDDR2 memory running at just 500MHz. No amount of tweaking is going to compensate for that architectural disadvantage.

These cards are particularly intriguing for those whose interests lie less in gaming and more in 2D and video applications, because the GPU used in both boards features ATI’s Unified Video Decoder (UVD), Avivo HD technology, and support for 7.1-channel surround sound via HDMI. UVD is capable of offloading all HD video-decoding operations from the host CPU, which means you can build a home-theater PC using a cheaper (and cooler) CPU than you might otherwise need.

Nvidia’s new cards can also output surround-sound via HDMI, but their solution is a bit clumsy: When you install the card, you must also route a S/PDIF cable from your motherboard to the card. AMD’s newer cards route audio over the bus, so there’s no need for cable.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Google and Tribune Co. are arguing over who’s to blame for an article that caused a significant drop in United Airlines share prices.

Confusion over an article reporting UAL Inc. had filed for bankruptcy has caused quite the stir between Google, Sun-Sentinel and Tribune Co. The story was originally reported by the Tribune and somehow made its way onto the most viewed section of the Sun-Sentinel. The only problem is that the article was written in 2002, UAL came out of bankruptcy in 2006 and is most certainly not filing for bankruptcy this week.

Unfortunately, the story was spotted by Income Securities Advisers and reported as new. Soon after, it made it’s way to Bloomberg, which caused UAL shares to drop 76 percent before trading was halted.

According to the Chicago Tribune, both sides agree that the story in the Florida Sun-Sentinel received enough clicks early on Sunday morning to make it one of the most viewed stories on the site. However, this is where it gets messy.

Google claims its search engines played no part in the story receiving enough hits in to make it to the top stories box, and that the Google bot only nabbed the story after it had been listed as one of the most read stories. It seems there was no date on the story in the Sentinel and as part of the process of indexing news, the Google bot assigns a time stamp to the story.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune Co.’s spokesman argued that the time stamp assigned by Google was instrumental and made the item look new when it users viewed it through Google News.

“After the story appeared on Google News, traffic went through the roof," said Gary Weitman, a spokesman for Tribune Co.

Nothing has really been decided yet, so it’s all very much "he said she said," but we’ll keep you updated.

Related Links

Read the full story on the Chicago Tribune.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Guide

When it comes to place-shifting—streaming live TV over the Internet to a remote PC or smartphone—Sling Media’s Slingbox tends to grab all the attention. But Monsoon Multimedia has a pretty good solution as well. It’s called Hava, and Nokia has just added the mobile client to its 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series.

Nokia’s initiative is designed to support small-to-mid-sized mobile developers designing applications and services for Nokia products, but the Hava mobile client will work with any Windows Mobile 5 or Windows Mobile 6 smartphone connected to the Internet. The software is free, but you must purchase the Hava product that plugs into your TV tuner, CATV box, or DVR at home. Once you’ve done that, you can not only stream live TV (or recorded TV if you have a DVR) but remotely control the device (rewind, fast forward, change the channel, and so on).

The only drawback to these types of devices is that anyone at home will have to watch the same content (or force you to watch whatever they’re watching). Monsoon’s Hava lineup ranges in price from $100 to $250 depending on features (the least expensive model requires a hard-wired Ethernet connection; the priciest supports HD resolution and can connect to an 802.11g wireless network).

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

On Tuesday Google announced that as a result of pressure from EU and U.S. regulators, the company had decided to reduce the amount of time it tied search data to a user’s IP address to nine months, down from the previous 18-24 month limit.

While the company didn’t say that it had been forced to do so, the official blog suggested that the folks at the GooglePlex were none to pleased with the decision. Stating that last year the company became the first to anonymize its search server logs in the interests of privacy and that other companies quickly followed suit, Google said that while the 18-24 month limit was good for privacy it was a tough decision to make as it might have a negative effect on innovation.

According to a report in Reuters, the European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said Thursday that the change was "a good step in the right direction" but also divulged hopes that Google would reduce the nine month period to six months in the future as this is the European Union target.

The company announced the retention period cut together with warnings that cutting the time to nine months would come with consequences. The company noted concerns about the potential loss of security, quality, and innovation that may result from having less data. The news that the reduction from 18 months to nine still isn’t good enough is not going to be looked upon kindly by Google.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

AOL has begun what it says will be a complete site revamp in an effort to bring back users.

Over the years AOL has become a shadow of what it once was. In its heyday, AOL was exactly what it purported to be, America Online. These days the company is struggling, and in an effort to attract new users, AOL has re-focused its objectives and is hoping that a few changes will help advertising revenues.

In an official blog on Tuesday, AOL announced that the company would be incorporating access to email accounts from third party providers. In what could be considered a contender for Understatement of the Century, Sanjay Nayar told users, “We realize that AOL.com is not the only web site that you use,” and that the company would add Yahoo! mail, Gmail and Hotmail to its homepage meaning users could preview mail from third party clients using the AOL homepage.

The addition of Gmail and Yahoo! to AOL is just the beginning of what will be a whole ream of changes on the homepage.

"If we want to remain relevant as a launching pad, we have to accept the fact that we have to be a starting point for all of the Web and not just our own stuff," said James Clark, vice president of AOL’s home page operations told the Washington Post.

Over the next six weeks the company will allow customers to log into their Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, and Twitter accounts as well as receive their own RSS feeds.

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By Devin Connors - Source : Tom's Hardware

Ever since the lukewarm reception of Windows Vista, the next version of the operating system Gates built has been on a lot of peoples minds. This past Saturday, Microsoft made it pretty clear that its on their mind as well. Senior vice-presidents Steve Sinofsky and Jon De Vaan started a blog about Windows 7 to address a myriad of issues and questions regarding the next big thing from Redmond.

While the blog itself dates back to August 14th, some of the newest posts reflect how Microsoft, specifically these two SVPs, are attempting to get an idea from the public about what they want in their next OS. One of the first things addressed in the newest post was the possibility of a Profile-based setup, or customizing your copy of Windows 7 to run certain types of applications (gaming, business productivity, etc.). While many would jump at the idea of a gaming-tuned Windows, it seems like this idea may be swept under rug. "The desktop PC (or laptop) is different because there is only a single PC and the roles are not as well defined," said the latest post (author wasn’t specified). "Only in the rarest cases is that PC dedicated to a single purpose...the reality is that we see very few PCs that run only a specific piece of software and in nearly every study we have ever done, just about every PC runs at least one piece of software that other people do not run."

The blog also touches on other ideas, like the Out of Box Experience, which is tied in the lack of Profile-based setup in Windows 7. "...our context for the out of box experience would be that we don’t want to introduce complexity there, where customers are least interested in dealing with it as they want to get to the excitement of using their new PC." So while this may seem to be the nail in the coffin for any sort of deep customization in the new OS, the blog also touches on how an OEM could potentially offer some sort of profiled experience if its appealing/selling to a specific market. So, if a boutique gaming PC manufacturer wanted to, it may be able to offer a heavily tweaked version of Windows 7 aimed specifically at gamers.

In any event, we should see more details emerge after Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) starts on October 27. Beyond (supposed) 15 second boot times, IE8, Windows Media Center, and updates for several other Windows programs, the details on Windows 7 are few and far between.

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By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Guide

The world’s largest particle accelerator takes its first step to becoming fully operational.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was partially brought online Wednesday to successfully and gently steer the first beam around the 27-kilometer stretch that makes up the particle accelerator.

The occasion marks just the first step in bringing the international science project into its fully operational state, as no particles have yet been set to collide. The next few steps should take place over the next few weeks as the machine is gradually brought further online, from initializing the acceleration systems to bringing about the first collision. The task from there will be beginning the research aspect of the project, including further calibrations, measurements and analysis, with results appearing as soon as next year.

The LHC is the world’s largest particle accelerator, built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and is based near Geneva, Switzerland. The project has been supported by the international community, with thousands of physicists from around the world participating, but with the European community taking the brunt of the near $10,000,000,000 bill.

The project is expected to help physicists better understand the universe by investigating its underlying forces and proving or disproving current related theories. For example, the Higgs boson is a theorized particle that some physicists are hoping to discover during the high-energy particle collisions. The discovery of the Higgs boson would help strengthen the Grand Unified Theory, which tries to explain a connection between three of the four fundamental forces in nature.

Some other investigations planned for the LHC will include studying the nature of dark matter and dark energy, searching for extra dimensions, investigating why gravity is so much weaker than the other three fundamental forces and for some, a search for micro black holes.

There has been some concern by the media and a few individuals who argue the safety of the experiments planned, as some fear the world could be destroyed by the creation of a black hole. The overall scientific community denies these concerns stating there is no conceivable threat posed by the expected particle collisions. Although it is argued that the creation of a micro black hole may be possible, despite the Standard Model denying so, if a micro black hole were to form, it would exist for only a short period of time. Doomsday could be as soon as late October if the paranoid skeptics are to be right.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Hardware

Toshiba’s Storage Device Division today announced two new 1.8-inch hard drives: A single-platter drive offering 120 GB of storage and a two-platter model boasting 240 GB of capacity. The devices are targeted at the digital media player, mobile gadget, digital camcorder, and ultra-mobile PC markets, setting them on a collision course with the new generation solid-state drives from the likes of Intel and Samsung.

Toshiba says its new drives feature a new mechanical design and improved firmware that increase durability and speed while reducing energy consumption by 33-percent. Thanks to fourth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology, the 240 GB design (model number MK2431GAH) boasts areal density of 344 gigabits per square inch (At the risk of over-simplifying, a hard drive manufactured using PMR technology arranges the magnetic grains it uses to store data in a vertical orientation, perpendicular to the platter. On a conventional hard drive, these magnetic grains are arranged end-to-end in a longitudinal orientation).

The new drives spin their platters at 4,200 RPM to deliver media-transfer rates of 488Mb/sec and interface transfer rates of 100 MB/sec. Both drives are equipped with parallel ATA (PATA) interfaces. The 240 GB model weighs in at 59 grams (2.08 ounces), while the 120 GB model tips the scales at 48 grams (1.7 ounces).

Toshiba’s new drives deliver more capacity than solid-state drives (Intel recently announced an 80GB model, the X25-M, and plans to sample a 160 GB drive in the fourth quarter), and they’re considerably cheaper (Intel’s X25-M goes for $595 in 1,000-unit quantities). Toshiba won’t disclose OEM product pricing, but we found an older 60 GB model selling online for $275.

While solid-state drives are unquestionably more expensive than electromechanical designs, they do offer significant advantages in speed, latency, and durability, since they have no moving parts.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Hardware

Nvidia has been slapped with a lawsuit alleging the company violated U.S. Securities laws and accusing it of keeping those major chip flaws the company announced over the summer a secret, despite knowing about them and their "root causes" since almost this time last year.

It was a pretty bad summer for Nvidia. Announcing a major hardware flaw means bad publicity for anyone. Aside from all the bad press, the lawsuit claims that when the company announced details of the flaw back at the beginning of July, Nvidia shares dropped by over 30 percent. Pile on the fact that the company said it would be incurring $200 million in warranty costs and that’s a pretty bad year.

It looks like the company is about to have an equally bad autumn thanks to the same problem. A lawsuit filed in California yesterday by New York law firm Shalov, Stone, Bonner & Rocco claims Nvidia knew about the problem with defective chips and knew of any ramifications such problems might have for the financial future of the company as early as November 2007.

The lawsuit claims that Nvidia purposely hid the information from the public with a series of statements made by the company throughout the last year and goes on to cite a series of statements from Nvidia touting its financial success for Q3 and Q4 of fiscal year 2008. The suit is seeking class action status and unspecified damages.

A similar lawsuit, but with class action status, was also announced today from the law firm of Girard Gibbs LLP. The suit is filed on behalf of all persons and entities who acquired the common stock of Nvidia Corp. between November 8, 2007, and July 2, 2008 and cites similar complaints.

Specifically, the suit takes issue with Nvidia’s "belatedly revealed" GPU defect information on July 2, 2008, which the company allegedly knew about, causing the its market capitalization to drop by over $3 billion and hurting shareholders. Those who acquired Nvidia common stock during the class period may before November 10, 2008 request to be appointed as lead plaintiff.

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