While Microsoft’s unveiling of two own-brand tablet PCs has surprised the supply chain in Taiwan and brought worries on PC vendors, Acer founder Stan Shih has commented that Microsoft has no real intention to sell own-brand tablet PCs and the offering is an ploy to boost adoption of Windows 8.
via Microsoft own-brand tablet PCs a ploy to drive Windows 8 adoption, says Acer founder.
The Recording Industry Association of America wants to put an end to software and services that enable people to rip songs from music videos.
Two days after YouTube-MP3.org, a site that converts songs from music videos into MP3 files, was blocked from accessing YouTube, the RIAA has asked CNET to remove software from Download.com that performs a similar function. CNET, which is owned by CBS, is the publisher of this news site.
via RIAA to CNET: Follow Google, nix video-to-MP3 conversions | Internet & Media – CNET News.
I do not advise downloading and installing anything from download.com. FOSS should be vetted by a reputable organization like sourceforge. That said, this kind of tactic will start to get very interesting. Ripping songs from youtube is just an algorithm.
This work is coming due to the new Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation .
The slides that Bridgman references can be found at SlideShare.net. The page cited is entitled “AMD’s Open Source Commitment To HSA” and says “We will open source our Linux execution and compilation stack.” This is being done to jumpstart the HSA ecosystem, allow a single shared implementation where appropriate, and to enable university research in all areas.
via [Phoronix] AMD To Open-Source Its Linux Execution & Compilation Stack.
From: Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation .
The Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation is poised to “define and promote an open, standards-based approach to heterogeneous computing that will provide a common hardware specification and broad support ecosystem to make it easier for software developers to deliver innovative applications that can take greater advantage of today’s modern processors.” The HSA Foundation goes without Intel’s support. The HSA press release can be read at AMD.com for more details as to what’s been announced thus far.
US firm Motorola Solutions is to buy UK tech icon Psion, the inventor of the personal digital assistant (PDA) and source of the one-time leading mobile operating system Symbian.
via Motorola Buys Psion For $200m | | TechWeekEurope UKTechWeekEurope UK.
However, the Psion brand remains best known for its mobile organisers, which developed from its role writing software for Sinclair ZX81 and ZX Spectrum home computers. These consumer devices are seen as the world’s first hand-held computers and prefigured later handheld devices from Palm Computing, RIM and Apple.
As mentioned above, Surface will be available in two flavors. One tablet will run Windows 8 Pro, and rely on a third-generation Intel Core processor. The other will feature Windows RT and run on an ARM processor. Both will feature 10.6-inch screens along with a kickstand and keyboard, but many of the other internal specs vary wildly:
via Microsoft’s Surface: Windows for a Cloud World.
As a result, she added, “Microsoft and its partners need to articulate a compelling strategy for how they will manage consumer expectations in the channel. Consumers aren’t used to thinking about chipsets.”
It’s mainly attempting to stop developers from becoming middlemen that resell its API technology to other companies. So a Fanhattan iPad app sold to consumers is OK, but licensing out its white-label search and discovery platform to a consumer electronics manufacturer is not. That is, unless it doesn’t want to include Netflix titles in the search.
via Much Ado About Nothing: The Truth Behind Netflix’s API Changes | TechCrunch.
According to a new study by website monitoring service Pingdom, 24.3% of the top 10,000 websites in the world as reported by Alexa now feature some form of official Facebook integration on their homepages
via Report: Over 24% Of The Web’s Top 10,000 Sites Now Use Facebook’s Official Widgets | TechCrunch.
Counting all kinds of links and official widgets, here is Pingdom’s final count:
- Facebook: 49.3%
- Twitter: 41.7%
- Google+: 21.5%
- LinkedIn: 3.9%
I would have suspected these numbers would be higher. My local DNS server hijacks all facebook requests so I see every time facebook.com tries to phone home from my browser.
OpenFlow based SDN allows companies to cost effectively improve performance of clustered applications in high density data centres like Big Data analysis and reduce their operating costs.
via Erlang Solutions teams with Infoblox to release the first Openflow-1.2 compliant switch.
In a classical router or switch, the fast packet forwarding (data path) and the high level routing decisions (control path) occur on the same device. An OpenFlow Switch separates these two functions. The data path portion still resides on the switch, while high-level routing decisions are moved to a separate controller, typically a standard server. The OpenFlow Switch and Controller communicate via the OpenFlow protocol, which defines messages, such as packet-received, send-packet-out, modify-forwarding-table, and get-stats.
via Intro to OpenFlow.
OpenFlow allows you to easily deploy innovative routing and switching protocols in your network. It is used for applications such as virtual machine mobility, high-security networks and next generation ip based mobile networks.
Over the past two weeks, Imagination Technologies has announced new, higher-end versions of its Power VR Series 6 GPU, claiming that the new Power VR G6230 and G6430 go “‘all out’, adding incremental extra area for maximum performance whilst minimising power consumption.” There’s a new ray-tracing SDK out and a post discussing how PowerVR is utilizing GPU Compute and OpenCL to offload and accelerate CPU-centric tasks.
Via: PowerVR Plans To Make Mobile Graphics, GPU Compute a Three-Way Race — Again
