Scott M. Fulton

UPDATE 10 January 2006 2:30 pm ET - Not very surprisingly, Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs had a big surprise for the audience stopping by his keynote at the Macworld Conference and Expo. Six months earlier than expected, the company announced its first Intel-based products - dual-core iMacs as well as dual-core notebooks.

The day when everyone starts flying home, and the crowds start to thin out, is when you can actually see some of the kiosks and displays and tucked-away corners that you might have missed earlier in the week. In such places, we found a WiMAX notebook and a dual-signal DV-R, among other things.

As the "majority" party in Las Vegas comes to a close this week, it's time now for Apple to take the spotlight, at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, and deliver the CE equivalent of the "Democratic Response." Can Steve Jobs keep fishing groundbreaking innovations out of his sleeve? Or would a simple reassurance that things are well now with the ship of state, disappoint Apple's followers?

While thousands stood in line to see Google president Larry Page not announce the "Google PC," we continued to find out some very interesting news last Friday, including looking into how a simple notebook computer can not only achieve high-definition, but surround sound.

The first official day of this year's Consumer Electronics Show - which we who keep count call "Day 2" - brought the two competing high-definition videodisc formats back into the spotlight. Meanwhile, a consumer electronics giant and a microprocessor foundry both took steps to become, well, the next Napster.

CES product story

On Wednesday, our "fastest four on the convention floor" started bringing you hard news before the gates even opened. And then the Gates opened - Bill, of course, as usual - officially launching this year's version of bidirectional streaming in action. Here's a complete rundown of what TG Daily brought you on Wednesday.

The president and CEO of Intel gave a formal name to the company's Yonah architecture this evening - the successor to the Pentium M. Core Duo is now a reality, and so is Intel's entry into the high-stakes world of streaming media download services, as Viiv takes on a life of its own.

Aiming squarely for the territory Intel had hoped to claim at this year's CES, AMD has jumped the gun and announced its own digital home media reference platform, AMD LIVE!, one day earlier than anticipated. So AMD has a platform, too, but is it made of sterner stuff than Intel's Viiv?

If you've been busy after the holidays watching the grass grow, or watching mold form on your kitchen sink, or watching Fox News, and wondering to yourself, "Hey, I wonder if somebody has discovered an even greater indivisible prime number," then wonder no more.

The man responsible for coining the term "automation," and perhaps first putting into words the concept of electronically-produced work as a force in the global economy, John Diebold died of complications from esophageal cancer on Monday.

As the launch date for Microsoft's Xbox 360 approaches, an NPD Funworld analyst tells TG Daily that retail sales for console games in the US continues its downward trend: down 24 percent in October versus the same month in 2004. But what could save the year yet - in fact, what could make it a record - is the resilience of a little something called generosity .

Gigabyte Technologies latest high-end motherboard is capable of driving as many as ten (10) displays, by way of its eight PCI-E X16 and two PCI-E X8 slots. And its innovative design enables an Intel Pentium D motherboard to use HyperTransport to eliminate the southbridge chip.

Signaling the fact that hard drive technology is nowhere near obsolescence, Sony Electronics announced this morning the release later this month to the US market, of a 5 Gb hard drive measuring 1.5 inches per side, that can fit in existing Compact Flash Type II slots.

A noted security software engineer learned that a well-used copy protection scheme employed by Sony BMG on its audio CDs, uses stealth protection techniques to evade user detection. Maybe that's bad, but how bad is it, really?

In a move that could transcend its immediate influence upon gamers' ability to store their high score tables, the Media Software division of Sony has released a new Media Manager application for the PC for transferring files to and from PlayStation Portable.

An anti-cheating mechanism deployed by Blizzard Software for use by players of their popular game, World of Warcraft, has been discovered to collect information about gamers' running Windows environment, and report that back to the server. If gamers were warned in advance - albeit with very fine print - does that make it exempt from privacy concerns?

The Internet Content Rating Association, which produces a content labeling framework to enable Web filters and voluntary content blockers, has announced that Microsoft has signed a licensing agreement with it, and is also making a financial investment in the Association, for an undisclosed amount.

UPDATE 21 Oct 23:15 EST The movie studio with the largest film library on the planet, and the pre-eminent content producer supporting HD DVD, announced this evening it is joining the Blu-ray Disc Association, and will make plans to make its vast library available to consumers on Blu-ray Disc.