Sony Gets Rolly!

Techtree News Staff

Sony has unveiled the all-new 'Rolly' digital music player that rotates, flaps its ends, and flashes colorful lights in time to music.The compact white-colored egg-shaped gizmo could easily fit in your palms. Weighing 300 g and measuring 104 mm long and 65 mm in circumference, Rolly has speakers on each end that are hidden by dish-like covers.

There's only 1 button on the player - an on/off switch. The other functions are controlled by a pair of rings that circle its body.

While 1 ring is used to move from track to track or album to album, the other controls the volume. These rings are connected to motors that enable the Rolly to scoot around a table-top in tune to the music being played.

The player can stand 5 hours of audio playback. This drops to 4 hours when the device is in motion and 3 and a half hours when Bluetooth streaming is also enabled.

Rolly has 1 GB of internal flash memory and can playback MP3, Atrac, or AAC songs (AAC songs with copy protection from iTunes Music Store aren't supported). It can also receive music streamed via a Bluetooth connection.

With a storage capacity of around 600 songs (depending on the songs' audio quality and length) Rolly incorporates sensors that could identify which way is up, enabling volume to be controlled by turning the player clockwise or anti-clockwise and tunes to be switched by pushing or pulling it on the floor.

Users have the choice of either using a special program on a PC, which analyzes music to come up with simple choreography that appears to match the rhythm of the songs, or download packaged moves to tunes from a Sony website.

Nokia's Morph points to mobile's flexible future

The "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition running at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York from 24 February to 12 May 2008 points the way to the future with a new concept called Morph.

Morph demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.

"Nokia Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile devices,” said Dr. Bob Iannucci, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia. “The Morph concept shows what might be possible."

Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, Head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia, added: "We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience. The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials."

The partnership between Nokia and the University of Cambridge was announced in March 2007. It was an agreement to work together on an extensive and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a research facility at the University's West Cambridge site and collaborates with several departments - initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical Division of the Engineering Department - on projects that, to begin with, are centered on nanotechnology.

"Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together," said Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering'sNanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of Nokia-Cambridge collaboration.

Red Hat beta-tests latest enterprise Linux version

By Matthew Broersma

March 13, 2008 (Techworld.com) Red Hat has rolled out a beta-test of the next version of its flagship OS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2, with a new kernel and significant changes aimed at server farms and at workstations.

The test version, running on kernel version 2.6.18-84.el5, is intended to give system administrators a chance to see what their systems will be running later this year.

Versions are available for standard RHEL and the Advanced Platform edition running on 64-bit systems and mainframes, as well as workstation versions, with testing intended to run until May 7, 2008.

For server virtualization, Red Hat is updating its built-in Xen hypervisor to Xen 3.1.2, improving the Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) interface and adding support for up to 64 processors per system with 512GB of memory per server.

The test version also updates server clustering capabilities, with tweaks to application failover support.

The new system includes better IPv6 support, with the addition of a DHCPv6 client and server.

On the desktop, Red Hat is refreshing most of the main workstation applications to their latest versions, with updates to Evolution, Firefox, OpenOffice and Thunderbird, among other applications.

Vista SP1 to hit Windows Update Tuesday, reports say

March 15, 2008 (Computerworld) Microsoft will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next week to a wider audience, according to information posted on Amazon.com and reports from a Web site that correctly called SP1's ship date last month.

Amazon currently lists Vista SP1 retail copies as available next Wednesday, March 19, while TechARP.com, the Malaysian Web site that nailed the update's release to manufacturing (RTM) date several days early, said users would be able to download SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18.

Vista SP1 shipped to duplication and OEMs Feb. 4, but since then it has only been available to previous beta testers, volume licensing customers and subscribers to IT subscription services. In fact, subscribers to TechNet and Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) only got access to SP1 after raising a ruckus, with some threatening to cancel their subscriptions and others saying they would postpone Vista deployment.

Most Vista users, however, have been unable to obtain the service pack. That was a conscious decision on the part of Microsoft, which said that the delay was caused by a small number of hardware device drivers that won't properly reinstall during the SP1 upgrade. Microsoft said it needed extra time to identify the drivers and set up blocking mechanisms that will prevent users whose PCs have those drivers from receiving SP1.

Microsoft has never identified the balky drivers or the responsible hardware manufacturers.

Retail buyers of the new version of Vista face no such driver problem, Microsoft has said. According to Amazon.com, customers after packaged retail copies of SP1 can get them beginning Tuesday, March 19.

The online retailer's listings also reflect the new prices Microsoft set for Vista after it cut prices by up to 48% late last month. Price cuts in the U.S., however, were significantly smaller: 15-20%. Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade, for example, lists on Amazon for $129.95, the price Microsoft pinned on it Feb. 28, and down from the earlier $159.95; Amazon, however, is selling that upgrade for $94.99.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Web site that called Vista SP1's RTM has reported that current Vista users will be able to download and install SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18. TechARP.com named Tuesday as the first possible start date for what it dubbed "End-User Manual Update."

Since early February, Microsoft has said that Vista users would receive SP1 in "mid-March" by either selecting the optional update in Windows Update or downloading a standalone installer from Microsoft's Download Center site. Only in April would it start pushing SP1 to all Vista users who have Windows Update's Automatic Updates set to automatically retrieve and install important fixes. (TechARP has named April 18 as that date.)

When asked to confirm the March 18 delivery date for SP1, a Microsoft spokeswoman only repeated the company's earlier statements. "In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update and the download center on microsoft.com," she said in an e-mail. "Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1. Any system that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not upgrade successfully will not be offered SP1."

It's unclear so far how a February snafu with affect SP1's roll-out. Last month, after Microsoft pushed a pair of prerequisite patches to users, some reported that their machines refused to finish installing one of the fixes, then went into an endless series of reboots. Several days later, Microsoft pulled the update from automatic delivery, said it was working on a solution and promised it would "make the update available again shortly after we address the issue."

First look: Internet Explorer 8 beta

This beta release of Microsoft's browser sports some cool new features -- but it's still very beta

March 7, 2008 (Computerworld) Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta 1 for developers, released by Microsoft on March 6, offers some fascinating new capabilities. For example, it introduces two new features called Activities and WebSlices that extend the capabilities of the browser by interacting with other Web sites and services.

There are also a variety of other changes, including some much-needed additions, such as a feature that will restore crashed browser sessions and tabs. I'll highlight what features are new and discuss how they may work when IE8 is finally released.

This review focuses only on the actual user experience of using IE8 though the beta has been released for developers. We didn't test aspects of the beta that are targeted to developers or that are concerned with underlying compatibilities and standards. For example, IE8 now includes a Developer Tools feature, which includes tools for HTML, CSS, scripting and debugging. Microsoft claims that the browser includes better scripting performance, and support for HTML5. And in the final version, although not this one, Microsoft claims that IE8 will have full CSS 2.1 support.

Finally, I tested IE8 for Windows XP, rather than the Windows Vista version (both versions have the same features).

Installation and a first look

The initial Windows XP download of IE8 weighs in at 14.4MB. When launched, it downloads other components and installs in less than 15 minutes. All in all, it's quite a painless install.

When you first start IE after installation, you're asked whether you want use "express settings." These are, in essence, a variety of Microsoft services, such as Live Search for search, Maps with Live Maps for mapping, Windows Hotmail for e-mail and so on.

You can also choose to adjust your settings manually; however, since many of these services tie into one of IE8's new features called Activities, be careful about changing some of the defaults, such as for displaying maps of any location highlighted on a Web page.

After you either choose your own settings or go with the defaults, IE 8 actually launches.

IE8 looks much like IE7 at first, with a few exceptions. The first is that what was formerly known as the Links toolbar has been integrated with the Favorites icons, and combined into a single toolbar called the Favorites toolbar. You can still make the toolbar disappear, though, as you could the Links toolbar, by selecting View -->Toolbars and unchecking Favorites Bar. (Note: If you're using IE8 for Vista, you'll have to first make the Menu Bar appear by pressing the Alt button.)

A particularly nice new feature, and one that I hope makes it into the final version of IE8, is the small Emulate IE7 button near the top of the screen. If there are any compatibility issues between IE8 and a Web site -- with a new browser, you never know -- just click the button, and it will fool the site into thinking you're running IE7. I'm not sure if this feature is for the developer-only version or if it will make it into the final (hopefully, most Web sites will be IE8-compatible by the time it's out of beta), but it would be nice if it stayed in.

AMD unveils its first two 45nm

Playing catch-up with Intel, AMD says new server, desktop chips will ship later in '08

March 4, 2008 (Computerworld) Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today plans to show off the first two processors to come out of its new 45 nanometer manufacturing process at the CeBIT conference in Germany.

Both processors -- one on the server side and one for the desktop -- are scheduled to ship in the second half of this year. Garry Silcott, a spokesman for AMD, declined to specify whether the chips will launch in the third or fourth quarter of 2008.

Silcott also said AMD is manufacturing the 45nm chips now in its Fab 36 plant in Dresden, Germany. The new chips, code-named Shanghai for the server version and Deneb for the desktop, have already shipped to a "select list" of customers, he noted.

News that AMD's 45nm efforts are under way but that delivery is still several months away comes as industry rival Intel Corp. continues to ship pieces of its growing family of 45nm Penryn processors. Even though AMD was giving Intel a market and mind share run for its money a few years back, financial troubles and delayed products have forced the company to play a long game of catch-up in recent months.

"It's late, but it's not too late for AMD to come out with 45nm chips," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. "The degree to which these chips can compete with Intel depends on whether 'second half '08' means July or late December. If we're talking July, then this might allow them to pull back to parity with current Intel products. If we're talking December, or essentially the thirteenth month of '08 -- namely January -- then they're still firmly behind Intel."

Olds added that if AMD had told its customers that 45nm chips were coming back when the company was on top of its game, then a lot of customers may have waited to upgrade their systems. Today, that's probably not going to be the case, he said.

"One of AMD's problems is that they don't have nearly as much credibility as they had before," he said. "If Intel announced that they were going to have something big in the second half of this year, then there might be some customers who would delay purchases in order to buy boxes based on the new tech. AMD doesn't have the reputation right now, so their announcement probably won't freeze customer demand. Although, the news that they have processors out in customer land is an indication that the processors are working."

Opinion: Top four reasons Blu-ray Disc will tank

The battle between the next-generation, high-definition optical disc formats was an exciting, if exasperating, contest to follow. But now that the smoke is clearing, and Blu-ray has officially kicked HD DVD's proverbial butt, why am I still waiting to buy a Blu-ray player? I mean, my colleague spent $1,000 dollars a year ago so that he could be the first one his the block to own one, and today, Blu-ray players are less than half that price.

Why doesn't my local Blockbuster carry Blu-ray Disc movies? In fact, why are my trips to Blockbuster so infrequent these days?

I'm thinking that Blu-ray -- and high-definition optical disc ownership in general -- just isn't that appealing. I've watched Blu-ray movies on the best televisions money can buy in Circuit City, Best Buy and Tweeter, and while the picture looks terrific, it just doesn't have me reaching for my wallet the way DVDs did when they were first introduced. Maybe it's because it's an evolutionary improvement in video quality and not the revolutionary jump that occurred when DVDs overtook VHS tapes.

So I've come up with these four reasons why I -- and probably most of America -- won't be heading down to Wal-Mart to buy a Blu-ray player anytime soon:

1. Blu-ray players are more than four times the cost of standard DVD players. In fact, Sony just announced today that it will be releasing its next-generation player for a cool $400 this summer. Still too much. Experts say the magic number that will spur real consumer adoption of optical disc technology is $199. Some analysts predict we may see Blu-ray players for $199 by the holiday season, but I'm not holding my breath.

I've had a certain disdain for Blu-ray Disc from the beginning (even though I figured it would win the format war) because of the high price of the players. I know this is partly due to the fact that, unlike HD DVD, manufacturers had to change out their DVD platter-pressing equipment for the new format. But I can't help but consider that Sony and others may be keeping the prices artificially high because they knew from the beginning they had a leg up on HD DVD when it came to studio support.

2. Upgraded DVD players offer near-HD quality for a fraction of the price. Have you been in your local Best Buy, Sears or Circuit City lately? That's right, 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p output are all offered on these inexpensive players, and you can purchase upgraded DVD burners as well for about half the cost of a Blu-ray player.

Microsoft: Windows XP faster than Vista SP1 in some cases

By Gregg Keizer

February 28, 2008 (Computerworld) Windows XP is faster than the new Windows Vista Service Pack 1 in completing common consumer and business tasks on PCs coming out of sleep mode, according to tests commissioned by Microsoft Corp.

The performance tests, conducted by Principled Technologies Inc. on Microsoft's behalf, showed that the older XP operating system remained faster than Vista SP1 in 61% of the operations grouped in a consumer test suite, and faster than Vista SP1 in 46% of the operations in the business-oriented head-to-head. The results were from time trials held on identical PCs after they had come out of standby, a power-saving feature in Windows. Vista, like other operating systems, including Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, calls the same mode "sleep."

However, when the same tests were run after a cold boot — with the PC's power turned on, the OS booted and the scripts run after two minutes — Vista SP1 came out on top in 74% of the tested consumer functions and in 66% of the business operations.

But no matter which operating system came out on top, the differences were small in virtually every case, said Principled Technologies. The total difference between XP and Vista SP1 in the 31 consumer tasks, for instance, was less than 5 seconds; of the 64 chores in the business scenario, 60 sported a difference of under half a second.
"Overall, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP performed comparably on most test operations," Principled Technologies concluded in its report.
The tests were run on four systems — two notebooks and two desktops — from Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Toshiba Corp.
A fifth system, another HP desktop, was omitted from the aggregate results because it "produced unacceptably high variability in its test results," according to Principled. Interestingly, that system showed XP was faster than Vista SP1 in more chores than any of the other test machines. In the consumer test set, for example, XP was faster than Vista SP1 in 74% of the operations immediately after a reboot of the discarded HP.
Windows XP performed much poorer on the dropped HP in the business tests; it was faster than Vista SP1 only 31% of the time, lower than the average of the other four PCs. But when it came out of standby, XP beat Vista SP1 in 53% of the business-oriented jobs, a higher percentage than the other machines.
That, among other things, touched some nerves. Several users commenting on Microsoft's official Vista blog — where mention was made of the tests — took exception to Principled's conclusion that Vista SP1 and XP produced comparable results.

Will Price Cuts Help Windows Vista Fly Off The Shelves?

By Max Brenn
21:39, March 1st 2008

In an unexpected and quite surprising move, Microsoft announced it will slash the prices of Windows Vista versions as soon as Service Pack 1 will be officially released.
As you might already know, the retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate will cost $320 instead of $399, while the upgrade version has been reduced from $259 to only $219.
Slashing the price of an operating system that has been introduced just one year ago is quite an unusual move, especially for Microsoft.
Officially, the company said the move is intended to speed up the Windows Vista adoption. It seems like after more than a year, Microsoft is still having hard times to convince users that the new OS is better than Windows XP.
Although Windows Vista is more technically advanced than its predecessor and it offers more features and advanced security options, it seems like the problems with the missing drivers for all kind of devices and the stiff hardware requirements are holding back users from migrating to Windows Vista. Microsoft is in a quite strange situation: it is competing against itself.
And as the Windows Service Pack 3 is on its way, it will remain to be seen how it will play out for Microsoft. From another point of view, Microsoft’s move to cut the price of its flagship product is not such a big surprise. The market dynamic in 2008 is very different from the one in 2001, the year when Windows XP was introduced.
Still 90 percent of the PCs are running Windows, but in the past years Apple’s Mac OS X and Linux have gained a lot of traction amongst consumers, partially because Microsoft’s repeated delays of its Windows Vista.
According to the Gartner’s estimated in the last year only 39 percent of the new computers were shipped with Vista pre-installed, while back in 2002 Windows XP was credited with a market share of 67 percent in the new computer sales. It is a clear sign that things are evolving.
The same company, Gartner predicted last month that by 2011, Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in computers.
“Apple's gains in computer market share reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple's success. Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices (such as iPod and iMac cross-selling),” the market research company said.
Let us not forget that the Windows Vista was launched with a delay of at least one year and selling as a premium a product which may have been a real revolution in 2006 is hard even for a big tech giant like Microsoft. So maybe the price cuts are only the price Microsoft should pay for its delays.
However, it is interesting to see if the price cuts will help Microsoft to reach its target of 200 million Windows Vista units sold until the end of 2008.