TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

With the kind of success that Google exhibits nowadays, it's not difficult to forget or miss what makes the company different from other pioneers in the industry and what puts them on top of the competition. Indeed, Google's advantages are not limited to an accurate and speedy search algorithm, advertising platform or conundrum of web services. As Om Malik cleverly puts it on a recent blog entry, it's the infrastructure stupid.

Google is known for spending sizable amounts of money on infrastructure, even when they were some of the first to perform and perfect server scaling using clusters of commodity-class x86 PCs. Now they plan to take things a bit further, as Google has filed a patent for a "water-based data center" that uses the ocean to provide power and cooling.

According to the patent filing, the data centers would be located 3 to 7 miles off-shore and would make use of the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter units that turn ocean surface waves into electricity. The remote data centers would still need first grade connectivity, an area in which the search giant has also shown interest in recent years.

A Microsoft spokesperson recently talked about the introduction of Google's Chrome browser, and apparently it has them at least somewhat concerned. Microsoft's Scott Hanselman said that Silverlight could face a serious threat from Chrome (and Firefox), if Google and Mozilla continue to improve the execution speed and efficiency of JavaScript. According to him, a “100 to 1,000 fold” increase in JavaScript speed could be expected from the two rival browsers, which would turn it a better choice for numerous web-based applications.

With this in mind, the software giant seems to be considering Chrome and it's fast JavaScript speed to be more of a challenger to Silverlight than Adobe Flash ever was.

This is an interesting change of gears, though it's been clear for sometime now how Google has seen JavaScript fit to build Web 2.0 around with GMail, Google Docs, and many other Google services relying heavily on it.

Ever wanted to get OCZ-quality gear without paying an OCZ price? The company posted an announcement earlier this week that may just make that possible, letting the world know they are launching an OCZ Gear site expressly to sell hardware they want to get rid of.

The OCZ Gear site will carry many of their products, but will specialize in items that are either discontinued, refurbished or are considered “clearance” items. The reasoning seems to be simple enough: Too much hardware, not enough buyers – or too much old hardware taking plenty of space. The gear will still carry a warranty, so there's a clear benefit to an enthusiast on a budget here.

“Recertified” sections on sites like Newegg are popular among those who aren't squeamish about buying used hardware.

Last week Microsoft began rolling developer updates on the next-generation Windows through the Engineering Windows 7 blog. For better or worse, the first topic they decided to touch on was boot time, a particular feature of previous and current iterations of Windows that has been heavily criticized for only getting worse despite of the incrementally faster hardware running on PCs today, not to mention the reiterated empty promises of instantaneous boot times.

Now it seems Microsoft has become more serious than ever on improving startup experience, dedicating a full team to improve times for booting, resuming from sleep, and resuming from hibernation. The blog post details some of the under the hood tasks needed on boot and some of the challenges that have prevented Vista (for example) from cutting down significantly on boot and resume times.

The ultimate challenge goes along these lines: "In the lab, a very good system is one that boots in under 15 seconds." But is that fast enough?

Should that figure account for applications running at startup as well? Could third party developers be aligned for improving the overall Windows experience? Will Windows 7 sleep mode finally work as well as intended despite of the variability of system configurations? And last but not least, is boot time still relevant at all?

Discuss.

In a long-overdue move, Joost is getting ready to nix its desktop video client in favor of a purely web based portal. The service, developed by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, launched to considerable fanfare last year but has fallen off the radar lately due to its lack of interesting content but also to the fact that it requires a desktop client to use – meaning that you can’t just log on to the web from any computer to access your account or watch videos.

But the shift online might be too little too late for Joost, though. For starters, the move will still require users to download a separate browser plug-in that promises to deliver better video quality than the competition, but at the same time limits its potential audience. Secondly, another free service, Hulu, is already doing what Joost intends to do – and it simply kills Joost in terms of content. Making things even harder, other for-pay video on demand heavy-weights, such as Netflix and Amazon, also feature premium content and already have a massive install base.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see how this latest move can help Joost compete in the increasingly crowded online video market.

In a rather unsurprising move, Comcast is appealing a recent FCC ruling that the company is improperly managing customers’ online traffic. While the FCC did not impose a fine, they did order Comcast to make changes to the way it handles traffic and submit a compliance plan in which they must detail how they intend to cease these practices by the end of the year.

Prior to the ruling, the company was already mulling to make some changes on its own, including targeted throttling and a 250GB cap on bandwidth per customer. The reasoning behind the appeal, then, is not to go back to their dubious practices of discriminating against specific types of data (read BitTorrent) but rather because Comcast – and the rest of the ISPs and telcos – don't want the FCC to be able to tell them how to manage their networks.

Comcast argues that the FCC’s sanctions against it were based on a list of network neutrality principles, not laws – thus it had not broken any law. Whichever way the court’s decision swings it will set a very important precedent. If the FCC’s order is recognized as unlawful by courts then other ISP may follow in enforcing network policy as they see fit. On the other hand, if it stands, it would grant the government fairly broad authority to regulate the Internet – and possibly lead to ISPs increasing prices for perceived bandwidth hogs.

Google’s Chrome share of views at TS, surpasses Opera @ TechSpot
iPhone: The Home Automation Remote Killer @ Gizmodo
Raon Digital Everun Note unboxing @ UMPC Portal
Chaos at £20,000 petrol giveaway @ BBC News
See more articles and reviews.

Five years ago in TechSpot:
Amnesty for music file swappers

Intel’s next-generation Atom processor, dubbed “Pineview,” will debut a year from now, according roadmap information recently obtained by a Japanese website. Few details are mentioned, but the new 45nm chip is expected be available in single- and dual-core versions featuring Hyper threading support as per today's Diamondville.

One notable difference from its predecessor, however, is that Pineview will be based on a new Lincroft micro-architecture boasting an integrated graphics core and memory manager integrated into the chip itself. Pineview Atom processors will connect to the associated I/O chip via Direct Media Interface (DMI) rather than a front side bus like the current Atom processor. It should be interesting to see what both AMD and Via will come up with to counter Intel.

The next installment in the Call of Duty series, World at War, will hit U.S. retail shelves in just over two months. The upcoming title is based on the same game engine as its predecessor, though rather than a contemporary setting, World at War will take the series’ action back to WWII.

Some folks will get to play the game a bit earlier, with Activision announcing that a multiplayer beta is to take place this October for both Xbox 360 and PC – PlayStation 3 and Wii owners, however, appear to be out of luck. Expectations are obviously high for the game after the success of Call of Duty 4. The full retail version comes out November 11 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, and Nintendo DS.

AMD will be introducing some new processors in November, aimed primarily at low-cost desktops: the Athlon 2650E and Athlon X2 3250E. Both processors are slower-clocked CPUs with very low TDPs as far as desktop chips go, with the 2650E's TDP being 15W and the 3250E's TDP only slightly larger at 22W. They won't be available in retail initially, instead aimed at OEMs who will doubtlessly put the CPUs in lower cost machines.

The 2650E will be a 1.6GHz part and the 3250E will be a 1.5GHz part. Another entry will be a 2.5GHz triple-core Phenom, the 8850. The processors are still being fabbed with a 65nm process, indicating that AMD's transition to 45nm is still faced with issues.

The CPUs are part of AMD's “Ultra-Value Client” line, a fancy way of saying “cheap” (or perhaps entry-level). This, coupled with recent price drops, indicates a change in strategy for AMD. After a recent announcement that high-end processors were no longer on the agenda, they've been leaning more towards the low-cost strategy that initially helped them compete with Intel in the first place.

Dell’s complete ownership of design, manufacture, sales and distribution helped the company rule the computer business back in the day. But as the industry changed, the PC maker was forced to ditch its once strong direct-sales-only business model and go to retail channels to increase its market share. Now, it seems the company is also trying to sell its computer factories around the world in a bid to overhaul what is rapidly proving to be an ineffective manufacturing strategy.

According a Wall Street Journal report, Dell has been in negotiations with major contract manufacturers and expects to sell most or all of its facilities “within the next 18 months,” but the factory buyers would continue to build Dell machines on the sites. Selling its production sites to focus on sales and marketing may aid the company’s efforts to expand its product range, all while reducing their operating expenses.

The news comes on the heels of weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings of $616 million, down from the $746 million a year ago – despite an increase in sales.

Intel's quick pace in advancing desktop CPUs continues, with recent announcements that many Core 2 processors will be discontinued soon. That includes several quad core and dual core processors, including some Extreme Edition processors. The quad core CPUs saying goodbye to their days of manufacture include the QX6800, QX6850, QX9770, and QX9650.

Even more dual core units are being discontinued, including some non-core products like the Pentium E2180, E2160 and the Celeron E1200. The units will still be available until towards the end of the year, but most retailers will be shuffling stock to newer model CPUs including 45nm parts.

The shelf-life for processors these days is pretty short. Most of the above mentioned quad-core units were originally released from just over a year ago to a year and a half ago.

The Xbox 360 price cuts which Microsoft has recently bestowed upon the U.S. and Japan will not be worldwide. In particular, the UK will not benefit from either sets of cuts, even though Microsoft is dropping the price of all versions of the 360 within the U.S.

Microsoft said that pricing is determined per-region, and they have no need to drop the price in the U.K. right now. Clearly they think that breaking the $200 barrier was important here, but not so much overseas. The reasoning for Japan is obvious enough, as they have a hard time competing as-is.

Is Samsung eying up SanDisk for a buyout? Whether that or some other form of partnership, Samsung has revealed that they are evaluating the flash company and considering “opportunities” with them, which could range from a total buyout to a joint venture. A spokesperson for Samsung said as much, but wouldn't reveal any details as to what they were working on.

SanDisk is the largest flash supplier in the world and large volumes of their memory is originally fabbed by Samsung – it could be that Samsung sees this as a chance to consolidate. Particularly as flash technologies become increasingly important to mass storage companies with the introduction of SSDs, Samsung may be seeking to leverage SanDisk as a way to boost their own flash products.

The move could also be seen as an attempt to anticipate rival Toshiba in the memory chip market. SanDisk has close ties to Toshiba and, while the two are behind Samsung in the flash market, they are expected to double its chip production capacity soon. An acquisition of SanDisk would not only be a huge hit to Toshiba’s business, it could also help Samsung cut the amount of royalties it pays to SanDisk relating to flash memory patents.

Just a few weeks ago it was rumored that Seagate was also considering a SanDisk buyout. That seems less likely to be true now with such statements by Samsung.

Microsoft has just posted their advance notification for next week’s Patch Tuesday, which will include four critical fixes that deal with remote code execution exploits in several software packages. Among the affected software is Windows Media Player 11, Windows Media Encoder, Microsoft Office and various components and versions of the Windows operating system.

Starting next month, the software giant will make a major shift in its security strategy. The company plans to unveil a new exploitability index to rank vulnerabilities based on the likelihood of someone developing working exploit code for them in order to help system administrators prioritize the patches. In addition, Microsoft plans to share detailed vulnerability information with security vendors before the public announcement so as to enable them to develop signatures and filters prior to Patch Tuesday.