Mac Whacking: switching between desktop environments is a slap!: "From this post by Tom Krazit at CNET we learn of Erling Ellingsen who has developed a way to use the motion sensor in modern Mac laptops to allow him to tap the side of the screen and bring up different desktop environments. He has posted a video of this amazing feat as well as all the geeky details on on how to get this stunt to work.

iPod phone Part 1: Speed Dial with your iPod: "If you're an iPod owner, you're carrying more power around in your pocket that you realize. The ubiquitous music player has capabilities that go way beyond 5,000 songs.

In our new series, Pro Pod Power Tips we'll unlock some of the iPod's lesser-known capabilities.

Join me for our first episode. We'll be teaching our iPods to dial a phone in the first of two iPod phone articles.

CONCEPTDRAW MINDMAP 4.4 ADDS MIND MAPPING TO iPOD: "Odessa, Ukraine, May 18, 2006 – CS Odessa announces that the new version of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 4.4 becomes the first application that brings mind maps to iPods. With ConceptDraw MINDMAP users of

Apple releases XCode 2.3 | MacMegasite: " 
Web MacMegasite.com
Archives | Reviews | Intel | iPod | Games | PSP
Home » content
Apple releases XCode 2.3
Apple has released XCode 2.3, the latest version of their integrated development environment. Major changes in this version include New DWARF debugging format for improved debugging fidelity and efficient utilization of disk space; New Distributed Network Build (DNB) scalable build architecture; and numerous enhancements and bug fixes. XCode 2.3 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later on a PowerPC or Intel processor. See the full release notes here.

Apple Matters | When Is It Okay to Insult iPod Users?: "
http://applematters.com/images/uploads/ch_idont_entry.jpg

May 27, 1981: Apple Offers Second Block Shares to the Public
Decode Your Digital Photos with Reveal
Apple Plus Pearson Equals PowerSchool Multiplied
May 26, 2004: Apple Starts an iPod Division
Is There Room for a Really Cheap Mac?

iPhone: iThink Not

If you were kicking around Europe in the middle ages there were certain things, William Manchester tells us, that you simply believed. Saber toothed hirsute humans patrolled the forests, Atlantis was just over the horizon, and rabid frothing men with the heads of dogs lived to the south. That there was no evidence of the existence of any of these things would not, the average peasant would sincerely aver, have the slightest impact on the implicit unshakable belief in their reality. The Apple iPhone is a little like the legends of yore. There is no actual evidence of such a beast but because there are iPods and cell phones it seems like a sure thing that Apple will produce a cell phone.

Scott Kelby launches online ''Photoshop for Digital Photographers'': "The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) has just released Photoshop for Digital Photographers with Scott Kelby--a 21-day online training course on its newly launched training site....

Why the New Mac Campaign will Fail: "

Last Thursday, this space featured a column earnestly opining that advertising the iPod alone wasn’t enough to help Mac sales. This week Apple introduced new ads for the Mac. The surprising thing is that Apple could respond that quickly to the complaint, sure Final Cut is great but Apple even…

Apple Renews 99 Cent Deal--Is That What It Takes to Compete?: "

In a meeting ending Monday evening, Apple announced it would hold steady on the original 99 cent price for all of its iTunes songs. Apple pioneered the digital download market in 2003 with the iPod/iTunes perfect combination, but recently music industry moguls and overseas legislation have threatened the iTunes price bracket.…

This Day: May 11, 1999: Apple Announces the G4: "The biggest difference between a G3 chip and its successor the G4 was Altivec. Altivec, renamed Velocity Engine by Apple for marketing purposes, added a 128 bit vector execution unit that promised to speed up graphically intensive tasks significantly. That wasn’t the only good thing about the G4.

MS tries to rain on PS3 parade with $200 Wii forecast: "

Exec predicts cut-price Nintendo box

Microsoft has claimed Nintendo's Wii console will cost $200 when its ships. Well, sort of. In a dig at Sony, Microsoft VP Peter Moore said consumers will be able to buy an Xbox 360 and a Wii for the price of a $599 PlayStation 3, according to Reuters.…

NASA denies Japanese SST talks: "

'No discussion at this time' on SuperConcorde

A NASA spokeswoman has denied that the agency plans to hold talks with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) over the development of the latter's Next Generation Supersonic Transport (SST).…

Photos: Apple unwraps 17-inch MacBook Pro: "The 17-inch MacBook Pro, which features Intel's Duo dual-core chip, is similiar to the 15-inch model.
"

Microsoft Tool To Help Users Avoid Typo Domains

Microsoft Tool To Help Users Avoid Typo Domains:
blueZ3 writes "ZDnet is running a story on a new tool from Microsoft that aims to inform users when they reach 'typo domains'. Apparently, there's concern in Redmond that IE users are being exploited by companies running ad farms on typo domains. The tool uses an automated search routine to look for domains with particular types of typographical errors--transpositions, incorrect TLDs, missing letters--and then adds the domains to a database. The eventual goal (though this isn't clear from the article) seems to be something akin to Verisign's URL redirecting, where typo domains are blocked."

Venus Probe Returns First Images

Venus Probe Returns First Images:
The BBC reports on the first images returned from Venus by the EU probe. From the article: "They show the hothouse planet's south pole from a distance of 206,452km. Mission scientists are already intrigued by a dark 'vortex' feature which can be clearly seen in one image. Venus Express will orbit the planet for about 500 Earth days to study its atmosphere, which is thought to have undergone runaway greenhouse warming." They're offering some high-rez images of the planet at the ESA website.

Lessig, Stallman on 'Open Source' DRM

Lessig, Stallman on 'Open Source' DRM:

Best of all possible shaftings?

When Sun trumpeted its 'open source DRM' last month, no one at first noticed an unusual name amongst the canned quotes. Lending his support to the rights enforcement technology was Free Software Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation board member, and Software Freedom Law Center director, Professor Lawrence Lessig. A name usually associated with the unrestricted exchange of digital media.…

Samsung elbows its way into chip foundry business: "

(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics plans to double the capacity at its chip foundry subsidiary by the end of this year and become a potent new rival in the made-to-order chip business, a senior Samsung executive said Tuesday.The subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor, is targeting customers requiring the most advanced production methods available, aided by a technology alliance with IBM and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing that will take it to a cutting edge, 45-nanometer manufacturing process.

'Our focus is on 90-nanometer and below, including 65-nanometer. Now we have [130-nanometer] and below in production,' said Ana Hunter, Samsung's new vice president of technology at the U.S. subsidiary.

Working at IBM's facility in Fishkill, New York, joint development teams have already completed work on 65-nanometer manufacturing technology and are moving it into Samsung's chip factory in South Korea. Around 30 Samsung engineers remain in Fishkill, hard at work on 45-nanometer technology. A nanometer is a measurement of the size of transistors and other parts that are etched onto chips.

Samsung has also invested in a state-of-the-art chip factory for the foundry venture. Output is at around 15,000 silicon wafers per month now, Hunter said, but capacity will double to 30,000 by year's end. Ultimately, output will reach 70,000 wafers per month. Hundreds or thousands of chips can be made on one wafer, depending on the chips' size.

Heavy investment is required for such plants, which cost around $3 billion, but Hunter declined to give a figure.

'Samsung is one of the few companies able to invest at the leading edge for volume production,' she said.

The deal to join the technology alliance with IBM and Chartered also provides a boost, in part because doing R&D jointly is less expensive than going it alone. Developing technology together also makes it easier for a customer to choose any of the three companies for its chip production. Chips are designed to be made on a specific production line, which is why once a customer chooses a foundry for a specific product, they rarely switch.

The new chip factory and R&D alliance make Samsung a potent new rival for foundry industry leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp.

'Samsung's track record speaks for itself. The memory giant has taken over a strong position in everything they've commit themselves to,' said Joanne Itow, an analyst at Semico Research in a report Monday.

The Taiwanese foundry leaders have fended off competition before, but in recent years several Japanese companies have moved into their territory, and new entrants are targeting the most advanced chip production. TSMC is watching the new competitors carefully: 'We respect them, but we do not fear them,' TSMC Chairman Morris Chang has said.

For Samsung Semiconductor, this year is about moving forward. So far, it has gained orders from its parent company and from mobile phone chip developer Qualcomm Inc. But the company faces challenges.

Hunter said there has been some hesitancy among potential customers to work with Samsung because of its roots as a chip developer and producer. Companies that create and make their own chips have a history of renting out excess production lines to smaller companies when times are lean, but taking them back when demand spikes. It's an arrangement that doesn't work well for small customers because they miss out on hot demand. The foundry industry was developed by TSMC to solve this problem.

'We have to prove ourselves to the market. ... It has not been a major business area for us in the past,' said Hunter, who worked at Chartered Semiconductor for 15 years before taking her new role at Samsung.

Sue Google, not us, Torrentspy tells Hollywood : "

Sue Google, not us, Torrentspy tells Hollywood
Torrentspy argues it can't be held liable for actions of visitors once they leave its Web site

By Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service
March 28, 2006 E-mail  
Printer Friendly Version
The Motion (Overview, Articles, Company) Picture Association of America (MPAA) might just as well have sued Google (Profile, Products, Articles) for copyright violation rather than pick on Torrentspy, the smaller company said in a court filing this week seeking dismissal of the case.

German watermark technology gains traction: "

(InfoWorld) - In case you didn't know, two separate institutes within the renowned German research group Fraunhofer Gesellschaft have developed two separate watermark technologies, with one quietly gaining traction in the European audio sectorMusicTrace, a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, has delivered watermark technology to Optimal Media Production for a new service aimed at curbing online music piracy, MusicTrace Managing Director Christian Neubauer said Tuesday in an interview. The Fraunhofer Institute was the creator of the MPEG-1 Layer 3 algorithm, later shortened to MP3.

'Optimal Media plans a service that will allow music studios to use watermark technology to protect the music they typically provide on CDs to broadcasters, critics and others for review before commercial distribution,' Neubauer said. 'Music companies are very concerned about music landing on the Internet and being copied illegally. Our technology is designed to track pirated copies.'

MusicTrace technology embeds a watermark in music stored on CDs. The technology makes slight changes to sound data; for instance, the change could be a higher volume intensity in a tiny part of a song.

The technology is already being used by the Austrian subsidiary of Sony, which operates the German-language, audio-book Web site claudio.de, according to Neubauer.

MusicTrace was issued a patent for its watermark technology in 1996, he said.

But another Fraunhofer group is following closely on the heals of MusicTrace. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute, one of 58 institutes within the huge applied research group, have successfully tested a software system, based on their own digital watermarking technology, for tracking pirated audio files in p-to-p (peer-to-peer) file-sharing networks.

The institute's approach differs from others in that it doesn't monitor the individuals who illegally download music but rather scans for content that has been illegally uploaded.

The technology was demonstrated earlier this month at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.

Apple restricts developer code access: "Developers angry at Apple's new approach to OS X code-sharing."

In an apparent attempt to stop developers porting Mac OS X to non-Macs based on Intel processors, Apple has restricted developer access to key elements of its source code. 'With the release of Mac OS X for x86 processors, Apple has chosen not to release source to key components of the OS, such as the kernel and all drivers," said Rob Braun in Dæmon News.