E-Label Smart Display Makes Drives Personal
WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new My Book® Elite™ desktop external drives featuring a customizable e-label that’s always visible, even when the drive is unplugged, making it easy to know what’s on the drive and how much space is left. The new My Book Elite also features automatic and continuous backup with WD SmartWare™ software and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. Available now at select retailers and shopwd.com, the new My Book Elite drives are offered in capacities of 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB.
The e-label smart display on the spine of the My Book drives can be changed easily and as often as desired. It utilizes e-paper technology which reads like ink on paper. With the included WD SmartWare software, users can easily create a label to name their drive or remind themselves of its contents. The e-label also shows available capacity and whether the drive is locked via WD SmartWare software’s powerful password protection and hardware-based encryption. Utilizing e-paper technology, the information on the display remains clearly visible, even when the drive is unplugged, and the customized label can be changed easily as often as desired.
According to research firm Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household currently has over 120 GB of digital media and files which is projected to grow to over 1 TB of data by 2013. Many consumers store this content on multiple external drives which often makes it difficult to know what or whose content is on which drive. During the development process, WD researchers visited with consumers and frequently noted a variety of ad hoc solutions to the “what’s on the drive?” or the “whose drive is this?” problems, ranging from hand-written notes to machine printed sticky labels. The e-label smart display was conceived as an elegant and practical solution to address this consumer need.
The new My Book Elite drives come with integrated WD SmartWare software. When the My Book Elite drive is plugged in for the first time, the simple and intuitive first backup process launches automatically. The real-time visual interface of WD SmartWare software gives users a reassuring view of their backup as it happens. After the first backup, users’ files are backed up automatically every time they change or add a file.
My Book Elite drives also feature user-selected password protection combined with 256-bit hardware-based encryption, which scrambles files before they are stored. Typically found only on much more expensive drive systems, the encryption acts as a virtual padlock to keep users’ data safe.
“The new My Book Elite drives’ unique new e-label smart display and integrated WD SmartWare software give consumers an elegant and practical way to organize their content while enjoying the peace of mind that their data is backed up and secure,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “Even when the My Book Elite drive is unplugged, consumers can easily see at-a-glance what is stored on their drive, how much capacity is available and whether the drive is locked.”
Price and Availability
The new My Book Elite drives are offered in capacities of 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB and have a 3-year limited warranty. My Book Elite drives are available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. MSRP for the My Book Elite drives ranges from 4,990 baht depending on
capacity.
My Book Elite
The new WD My Book Elite drives feature:
- Smart display – a customizable e-label that reminds users of what is stored on the drive and provides available capacity and security status at-a-glance even when the drive is unplugged;
- Smaller, sleeker, more streamlined design and elegant book-like shape that takes up minimal space and allows multiple My Book drives to nestle together neatly like volumes on a shelf;
- WD SmartWare software that visually present consumers' data in a software control center;
- 256-bit hardware-based encryption and password protection for peace of mind knowing that data is protected from unauthorized access;
- USB 2.0 interface – for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers;
- WD GreenPower Technology™ lowers internal drive power consumption by up to 30 percent, a sleep mode reduces power during idle times, and a power-saving feature turns the drive on and off with your computer;
- Planet-friendly packaging derived from recycled materials to minimize waste;
- NTFS[1] formatting and are compatible with Windows® XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7;
- 3-year limited warranty.
WD SmartWare Software
WD SmartWare software features:
- Visual backup displays that show content in categories and shows the progress of backup;
- Automatic, continuous data backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file;
- Retrieve valuable data to its original location whether it’s lost data or the file has been overwritten; and,
- Customizable data backup that allows users to set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.
About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. WD applies its storage expertise to consumer products for external, portable and shared storage applications. WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.
Western Digital, WD, My Book and the WD logo are registered trademarks; My Book Elite, WD GreenPower Technology and WD SmartWare are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. As used for storage capacity, one gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
ELECTRONICS, IT FIRMS GEAR UP FOR RISING DEMAND
Thai electronics and information-technology firms are planning to expand their businesses as the global economic recovery gathers pace, which will boost the need for higher capacity and more outlets.
Stars Microelectronics (Thailand), an electronics-maker, plans to invest Bt150 million next year to increase capacity at its two business lines, microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA) and integrated circuitry (IC).
CEO and co-founder Polsak Lertputipinyo yesterday said the company would increase IC capacity from 800 million units per year to around 1.4 billion by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, it will raise MMA production capacity to 90 million units per annum from 80 million units per annum from 80 million this year.
At present, IC products contribute 20 per cent of Stars' revenue, with the majority generated from MMA products. The company expects revenue from IC products to increase to around 30 per cent next and be on a par with MMA within three years.
The company aims to maintain revenue growth at around 15 per cent per annum.
Polsak said the key product driver for the company's IC business was its Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, which the company supplies to leading auto-parts customers around the world. Orders have increased by 60 per cent from last year. Stars plans to raise production capacity to more than 3 million units per month from the current 2 million.
Regarding the company's MMA business, orders of hard disks for laptop computers have increased by 70 per cent.
Western Digital, the world's second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives, has confirmed increased orders of 60 per cent until the middle of next year.
Stars has also seen a rise in orders from smart-phone manufacturers as worldwide sales climb. The company generated revenue of Bt7.6 billion and net profit of Bt189 million in the first nine months of the year. For this year, it predicts net profit will slightly exceed the Bt210 million reported last year.
Meanwhile, Supant Mongkolsuthree, CEO of Synex (Thailand), a leading importer and distributor of computers and IT-related equipment, said the company had upped its revenue growth target for this year to 15 per cent from 5 per cent, after signing a contract to become the sole distributor of Seagate's hard disk drives.
The move was despite industry forecasts that the value of the computer hardware market this year would drop 5 per cent from last year to Bt70 billion.
Stars Microelectronics (Thailand), an electronics-maker, plans to invest Bt150 million next year to increase capacity at its two business lines, microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA) and integrated circuitry (IC).
CEO and co-founder Polsak Lertputipinyo yesterday said the company would increase IC capacity from 800 million units per year to around 1.4 billion by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, it will raise MMA production capacity to 90 million units per annum from 80 million units per annum from 80 million this year.
At present, IC products contribute 20 per cent of Stars' revenue, with the majority generated from MMA products. The company expects revenue from IC products to increase to around 30 per cent next and be on a par with MMA within three years.
The company aims to maintain revenue growth at around 15 per cent per annum.
Polsak said the key product driver for the company's IC business was its Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, which the company supplies to leading auto-parts customers around the world. Orders have increased by 60 per cent from last year. Stars plans to raise production capacity to more than 3 million units per month from the current 2 million.
Regarding the company's MMA business, orders of hard disks for laptop computers have increased by 70 per cent.
Western Digital, the world's second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives, has confirmed increased orders of 60 per cent until the middle of next year.
Stars has also seen a rise in orders from smart-phone manufacturers as worldwide sales climb. The company generated revenue of Bt7.6 billion and net profit of Bt189 million in the first nine months of the year. For this year, it predicts net profit will slightly exceed the Bt210 million reported last year.
Meanwhile, Supant Mongkolsuthree, CEO of Synex (Thailand), a leading importer and distributor of computers and IT-related equipment, said the company had upped its revenue growth target for this year to 15 per cent from 5 per cent, after signing a contract to become the sole distributor of Seagate's hard disk drives.
The move was despite industry forecasts that the value of the computer hardware market this year would drop 5 per cent from last year to Bt70 billion.
IBM Thailand launches LotusLive
IBM Thailand has launched its latest cloud-based offerings called LotusLive that brings web-based email, instant messaging, meetings, collaboration, social networking and project management to users over the Internet while keeping the best of enterprise grade security and privacy.
Jadesada Kraisingkorn, country manager IBM Software Group in Thailand,explained that IBM is playing at many levels in the cloud, from the actual hardware infrastructure, its CloudBurst management with flexible allocation and the top layer of solutions which is Lotus Live.
Unlike pure software-as-a-service vendors, IBM Lotus can deliver traditional on-premise,appliance (hardware preloaded with software) or cloud services.
Lotus Live delivers solutions in three key areas. The first group is messaging (email and instant messaging, called SameTime) and content management;second is communication and social networking, the art of linking people to people within a big organisation not just through work flow; and third is integration with corporate applications.
IBM stresses that while Lotus Live is not the first cloud email service, it is an enterprise-grade cloud email service with a strong focus on ownership of data,security and integration with the rest of the organisation.
Lotus Live Engage allows users to log in for meetings over the Internet where they can share screens and dashboards.Engage is a development of IBM's internal BlueHouse which was once showcased as a Facebook for the enterprise.
One of its strengths is the concept of guests. It is possible to give access to certain pages to outsiders without having to pay if they work on the project where they can share in collaboration and activities related to the project. Engage is integrated into work flow with meeting details kept along with transcripts and to-do lists on what was agreed from the meeting.
Then there is Lotus Live Events which is more one-way and focused on training and seminars.
The modules are built around Lotus Live Notes/iNotes which has email and calendaring and is integrate with all the other modules.
The big difference compared to other web-based office solutions is that Lotus Live has the concept of roles. In a typical organisation, the secretary of the boss will have her boss's password, which is very dangerous. In Lotus Live it is possible to delegate to the secretary such that she can read and create only but cannot delete, and any email sent out will be tagged sent on behalf of.
Unlike the paid-for competition, Lotus Live does not do data mining on user data and one of the spokespersons urged anyone using a certain free for up to 25 user competitor (clearly Google Apps)to check their fine print.
In January, IBM announced a partnership with salesforce.com that will turn Lotus Live activities into Salesforce opportunities where the progress of a sales lead can me monitored from Lotus Live's dashboards. Other partnerships exist with Skype for click to call and LinkedIn where files can be shared with people on linked in easily.
IBM Thailand is aiming the package at SMEs, selling it through partners and offering them IBM technology at an affordable price.
Jadesada Kraisingkorn, country manager IBM Software Group in Thailand,explained that IBM is playing at many levels in the cloud, from the actual hardware infrastructure, its CloudBurst management with flexible allocation and the top layer of solutions which is Lotus Live.
Unlike pure software-as-a-service vendors, IBM Lotus can deliver traditional on-premise,appliance (hardware preloaded with software) or cloud services.
Lotus Live delivers solutions in three key areas. The first group is messaging (email and instant messaging, called SameTime) and content management;second is communication and social networking, the art of linking people to people within a big organisation not just through work flow; and third is integration with corporate applications.
IBM stresses that while Lotus Live is not the first cloud email service, it is an enterprise-grade cloud email service with a strong focus on ownership of data,security and integration with the rest of the organisation.
Lotus Live Engage allows users to log in for meetings over the Internet where they can share screens and dashboards.Engage is a development of IBM's internal BlueHouse which was once showcased as a Facebook for the enterprise.
One of its strengths is the concept of guests. It is possible to give access to certain pages to outsiders without having to pay if they work on the project where they can share in collaboration and activities related to the project. Engage is integrated into work flow with meeting details kept along with transcripts and to-do lists on what was agreed from the meeting.
Then there is Lotus Live Events which is more one-way and focused on training and seminars.
The modules are built around Lotus Live Notes/iNotes which has email and calendaring and is integrate with all the other modules.
The big difference compared to other web-based office solutions is that Lotus Live has the concept of roles. In a typical organisation, the secretary of the boss will have her boss's password, which is very dangerous. In Lotus Live it is possible to delegate to the secretary such that she can read and create only but cannot delete, and any email sent out will be tagged sent on behalf of.
Unlike the paid-for competition, Lotus Live does not do data mining on user data and one of the spokespersons urged anyone using a certain free for up to 25 user competitor (clearly Google Apps)to check their fine print.
In January, IBM announced a partnership with salesforce.com that will turn Lotus Live activities into Salesforce opportunities where the progress of a sales lead can me monitored from Lotus Live's dashboards. Other partnerships exist with Skype for click to call and LinkedIn where files can be shared with people on linked in easily.
IBM Thailand is aiming the package at SMEs, selling it through partners and offering them IBM technology at an affordable price.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
NY ATTORNEY-GENERAL FILES SUIT AGAINST INTEL
The attorney - general of New York state filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel on Wednesday alleging the US computer chip giant engaged in illegal practices to dominate the market.
"Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market," attorney - General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
"Intel's actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices," Cuomo said.
"These illegal tactics must stop and competition must be restored to this vital marketplace," he added.
The lawsuit acused Intel of engaging in "a systematic worldwide campaign of illegal, exclusionary conduct to maintain its monopoly power and prices in the market for x86 microprocessors", the "brains" of personal computers.
It accusedc the company of "exacting exclusive or near-exclusive agreements from large computer makers in exchange for payments totalling billions of dollars" and threat ening retaliation against firms that did not fall into line.
REtaliatory threats allegedly included cutting off payments from Intel, funding competitors, and ending joint development ventures.
To obtain exclusive agreements, Intel was accused of paying so-called "rebates" to computer makers of billions of dollars in some years.
"These rebates were actually just payoffs with no legitimate business purpose that Intel invented to disguise their anti-competitive nature," the Cuomo statement said.
The lawsuit accused Intel of paying US computer maker Dell nearly $2 billion (Bt66.9 billion) in "rebates" in 2006.
Another US computer maker Hewlett Packard, was allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates in return for an agreement to cap HP's sales of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)-based products at five per cent of its business desktop personal computers.
US computer giant IBM was allegedly paid $130 million not to launch an AMD-based computer server product, according to the lawsuit.
EU antitrust regulators fined Intel a record 1.06 billion(Bt52.5 billion) in May, claiming the company abused its stranglehold on the semiconductor market to crush AMD.
Intel spokesman Chuck Molloy rejected the latest allegations.
"We disagree with the New York attorney-general," he said. "Neither consumers, who have consistently benefited from lower prices and innovation, nor justice are being served by a decision to file a case now."
"Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market," attorney - General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
"Intel's actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices," Cuomo said.
"These illegal tactics must stop and competition must be restored to this vital marketplace," he added.
The lawsuit acused Intel of engaging in "a systematic worldwide campaign of illegal, exclusionary conduct to maintain its monopoly power and prices in the market for x86 microprocessors", the "brains" of personal computers.
It accusedc the company of "exacting exclusive or near-exclusive agreements from large computer makers in exchange for payments totalling billions of dollars" and threat ening retaliation against firms that did not fall into line.
REtaliatory threats allegedly included cutting off payments from Intel, funding competitors, and ending joint development ventures.
To obtain exclusive agreements, Intel was accused of paying so-called "rebates" to computer makers of billions of dollars in some years.
"These rebates were actually just payoffs with no legitimate business purpose that Intel invented to disguise their anti-competitive nature," the Cuomo statement said.
The lawsuit accused Intel of paying US computer maker Dell nearly $2 billion (Bt66.9 billion) in "rebates" in 2006.
Another US computer maker Hewlett Packard, was allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates in return for an agreement to cap HP's sales of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)-based products at five per cent of its business desktop personal computers.
US computer giant IBM was allegedly paid $130 million not to launch an AMD-based computer server product, according to the lawsuit.
EU antitrust regulators fined Intel a record 1.06 billion(Bt52.5 billion) in May, claiming the company abused its stranglehold on the semiconductor market to crush AMD.
Intel spokesman Chuck Molloy rejected the latest allegations.
"We disagree with the New York attorney-general," he said. "Neither consumers, who have consistently benefited from lower prices and innovation, nor justice are being served by a decision to file a case now."
GPS to save time - and the world
GPS is helping to save the world with its latest innovation, ecoRoute, which helps drivers find more fuel-efficient routes and be more aware of fuel consumption.
The latest Garmin Nuvi 1460 GPS announced by ESRI (Thailand) comes with an updated database and new features,including ecoRoute, which calculates fuel use and the driver's carbon footprint.
The ecoRoute program helps improve driver behaviour because the driver is likely to compete with himself to achieve better "scores", said Channarong Teerarojanarat, the company's telematics department manager.
It helps optimise drivers' fuel economy and boost their green score, he said.This figure considers factors including acceleration, deceleration and speed and is marked out of 100- the higher the score, the better.
ESRI (Thailand) general manager Krairop Luanguthai said the Nuvi 1460 comes with a Thai keyboard, 2GB flash and Bluetooth wireless.
It is preloaded with the latest ESRI detail map TSM (Thailand Street Map)version10, including more than 1,000 junction views in Bangkok with additional views to indicate proper lane directions.The program also shows speed limits and notifies the driver when they are exceeded.
There are five selectable Thai voices and a new point of interest page, up to 10 route plans, and automatic routing to show the most direct journey.
Meanwhile, the company also announced the Garmin Oregon 550, which combines rugged outdoor touchscreen navigation with a 3.2-megapixel digital camera. The Oregon 550 features add high-sensitivity GPS, barometric altimeter, 3-axis electronic compass and microSD card slot.
Krairop added that the company and its partners have been testing the TMC (Traffic Messaging Centre) system which reports traffic conditions and known accidents. The TMC service is expected to be launched next year.
Channarong noted that the GPS market this year increased by 50 percent and the company expects to see 500 million baht of sales revenue.
He noted that the company will launch a website, www.gpssociety.com, a community for GPS users that encompasses dynamic features and information."This will encourage users to take part in more activities as there are also route recommendations for special festivals."
Recently, ASUS allies with Garmin announced, Novifone, a navigator phone under the brand garmin-asus.
garmin-asus Nuvifone M20 is equipped with Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, LBS (Location Based Services), mobile web browser, and navigation tools.
The phone features call function,search function and view map function which comes with preloaded Thai map.
The latest Garmin Nuvi 1460 GPS announced by ESRI (Thailand) comes with an updated database and new features,including ecoRoute, which calculates fuel use and the driver's carbon footprint.
The ecoRoute program helps improve driver behaviour because the driver is likely to compete with himself to achieve better "scores", said Channarong Teerarojanarat, the company's telematics department manager.
It helps optimise drivers' fuel economy and boost their green score, he said.This figure considers factors including acceleration, deceleration and speed and is marked out of 100- the higher the score, the better.
ESRI (Thailand) general manager Krairop Luanguthai said the Nuvi 1460 comes with a Thai keyboard, 2GB flash and Bluetooth wireless.
It is preloaded with the latest ESRI detail map TSM (Thailand Street Map)version10, including more than 1,000 junction views in Bangkok with additional views to indicate proper lane directions.The program also shows speed limits and notifies the driver when they are exceeded.
There are five selectable Thai voices and a new point of interest page, up to 10 route plans, and automatic routing to show the most direct journey.
Meanwhile, the company also announced the Garmin Oregon 550, which combines rugged outdoor touchscreen navigation with a 3.2-megapixel digital camera. The Oregon 550 features add high-sensitivity GPS, barometric altimeter, 3-axis electronic compass and microSD card slot.
Krairop added that the company and its partners have been testing the TMC (Traffic Messaging Centre) system which reports traffic conditions and known accidents. The TMC service is expected to be launched next year.
Channarong noted that the GPS market this year increased by 50 percent and the company expects to see 500 million baht of sales revenue.
He noted that the company will launch a website, www.gpssociety.com, a community for GPS users that encompasses dynamic features and information."This will encourage users to take part in more activities as there are also route recommendations for special festivals."
Recently, ASUS allies with Garmin announced, Novifone, a navigator phone under the brand garmin-asus.
garmin-asus Nuvifone M20 is equipped with Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, LBS (Location Based Services), mobile web browser, and navigation tools.
The phone features call function,search function and view map function which comes with preloaded Thai map.
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
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