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Samsung is already the world’s largest memory supplier and a major player in the US when it comes to home electronics, but the company has now set its sights on a new goal: breaking into the crowded US laptop market with low-priced “netbooks” as well as other thin and powerful models.

The company is introducing five notebooks priced between $1,049 and $2,499, which include ambiguously named X360 ultra portable (pictured above) that the company touts as being “lighter than Air and fully featured” – you can read the specs here. Starting in 2009, Samsung will partner with an as-yet undisclosed retailer, and begin offering its range of notebook and netbook systems in the US.

Whether or not Samsung succeeds remains to be seen, but the company will have to be on its toes if it wants to make a significant dent on the US laptop market, which is practically locked up by Dell, HP, Acer, Apple and Toshiba.

Intel is preparing to discontinue numerous dual-core and quad-core CPUs in the next few months, cutting back significantly on the portfolio of processors on the market. They initially were preparing to discontinue a handful of processors, and now the list has grown.

A total of at least 13 CPUs are scheduled for dismissal in this move, including both 65nm and 45nm parts. Discontinued CPUs will include dual core models from the E4600 all the way to the E8300, as well several quad-core models. The official notices is expected soon, at which time Intel will probably also reveal a roadmap for the CPUs that will succeed them.

10 strategic technologies for 2009 @ InfoWorld
World at War MULTIPLAYER BETA @ Call of Duty Headquarters
10 billion photos on Facebook @ Facebook
Guitar Pitch Bend with Wiimote @ YouTube
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RSS is a very powerful web feed format that many of us have come to rely upon. While many think of it as a delivery system for news links, the concept of other types of media being delivered via RSS has been tossed around many times. Now, Flock, a browser based upon Firefox, will be incorporating Media RSS feeds into their browser. The browser itself can use RSS as a mechanism to deliver new images and video from a variety of sources, using the Media RSS standard. Media RSS has been used in other projects before, though not many, and Flock will be the first browser to do such.

The media integration doesn't stop at images and video. They also are coupling Facebook and MySpace integration, letting people easily “share” things they discover with people in their social networks. You can read the full press release after the jump.

This new use of RSS is different than Google's recent introduction of RSS feeds for search terms, but in the same category of expanding what RSS is. I like the ideas all around, and hope they get expanded further. It's easy to speculate that RSS or a similar technique could be used to deliver all content on the web.

Adobe today officially released the tenth version of its ubiquitous Flash player plug-in, bringing new “expressive features” for developers and a performance boost for users. The new version offers a number of improvements such as native support for 3D, a new text rendering engine, and integration with Adobe's Pixel Bender technology.

The company has also included a system where the stream will automatically adapt to bandwidth conditions, allowing for smoother video and audio playback. Adobe Labs has assembled several demos showing off the new features on its website, which you can check out here. Flash Player 10 is available now on all platforms, including Linux.

Sony has just released the latest firmware updates for its two flagship systems and both bring with them a number of useful additions. The PlayStation update’s biggest new features are a new power saving mode, Trophy enhancements, in-game screenshots, improved support for the official Bluetooth Headset and Flash 9 functionality meaning many flash-based video sites should now be functional.

Regarding the PSP, its biggest new feature is the PSP Store, enabling direct access to downloadable content from the handheld device. Sony has also added a full screen keyboard option for text entry and has redesigned the XMB background. Both firmware releases – version 2.5 for the PlayStation 3 and 5.00 for the PSP – are now available on the PlayStation Network.

Shortly after announcing that they were implementing a feature freeze on Firefox 3.1 for further bug squashing, Mozilla has announced that a beta version of the browser is available. Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is up for download now, letting people test drive the first major update to Firefox 3 since its milestone release a few months ago.

Though the beta is available, everyone should remember that beta software is just that – and may have unexpected bugs in it. Mozilla is encouraging anyone interested to use it and report any bugs back to Mozilla. The beta is available for all three platforms.

Although Joost was among first companies to offer broadcast-style video capabilities through the web, the service always suffered from a couple of major limitations: lack of unique, noteworthy content and the fact that users had to download a separate Joost player to watch videos, which is more than what a lot of people is willing to do.

The company had inadvertently worked itself into a strategic hole, whereas rival video sites such as YouTube.com and Hulu.com were thriving in terms of viewership. Now, taking a different approach, Joost has re-launched as a Flash-based video streaming service available to anyone with a web browser.

The revamped site now includes more than 46,000 professionally produced videos, including content from partners such as CBS, Sony Pictures, Viacom, Warner Bros and others. Looking to distinguish itself from Hulu.com, Joost is unsurprisingly focusing its efforts on enhancing the site's social networking features, hoping that users will be more engaged than at other video portals.

But while Joost’s revamp is perhaps a step in the right direction, it really doesn’t bring anything new to the table and the majority of its material can be found elsewhere on the web. I wonder if it’s too late for the once most promising Internet TV service or if Joost will manage to carve a niche for itself.

It was just last week that we heard about Asustek's plan to introduce touch screen Eee PCs in the near future. Apparently their manufacturing facilities are really on the ball, as the company has now launched the first such touch screen Eee model. It is an Eee PC desktop, intended to compete with the HP TouchSmart, coming in at a lower price point.

The desktop is somewhat weak on hardware, but not any weaker than you'd expect from an embedded PC system, with a 1.6GHz Atom, a gig of RAM and a 160GB HDD. The size of the HDD was likely chosen due to the limitations that Microsoft has in place for Windows XP on embedded systems. The initial version of the touch screen Eee will run Windows only – though Linux versions may be available soon.

The systems aren't immediately available, with the first batch coming out in late November, though there's no mention about whether or not Asustek had this planned.

Ubisoft today announced that the long awaited sequel to Far Cry has finally gone gold. This of course means that the development stage is completed, and the game is now ready for duplication in preparation for its launch on October 21.

Far Cry 2 runs on an all-new game engine and, like the original Far Cry, features non-scripted enemy AI and completely destructible environments. The game takes place in a war-torn, African state 50 square kilometers in size, where players will find themselves forced to make deals with corrupt warlords on both sides of the conflict in order to survive. Far Cry 2 will debut exclusively on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at $59.99 and also on the PC priced at a lower $49.99.

It looks like the rumors turned out to be true, at least for the most part. Apple today announced new MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks that are thinner and lighter yet more robust than before thanks to a new manufacturing process for the casing, carved from a solid brick of aluminum.

There’s two new MacBooks are available – a 15.4-inch model for $1,599 and a 13.3-inch model for $1,299 – that's on top of the white plastic model which now starts at $999 and a couple of 15.4-inch MacBook Pro models with the base spec starting at $1,999. On the hardware front, Jobs has heavily pushed the Macs' graphics performance with a new integrated part, dubbed the GeForce 9400M, that can be paired with a higher-end 9600M GT in the premium MacBook Pro models.

Other notable features include LED backlit displays, a new multi-touch glass touchpad that will also act as button and is 39% larger than the one on outgoing models, backlit keyboards, a magnetic latch, and improved battery life. Likewise, Apple has updated its MacBook Air notebook, keeping it as skinny as ever but with improved graphics, a faster processor and more storage space.

Nvidia’s GPU problems had so far been confined to laptops only, but now HP says the faulty graphic chips are also to blame for similar problems in its desktops. Specifically, the company has confirmed that 38 different models in its Pavillion Slimline range of desktop machines are prone to suffer from loss of video output or booting problems.

HP is extending the warranties on these problems for an extra year or until December 31st, 2009 and will replace the motherboards for free under the plan. The increasingly widening scope of Nvidia graphics failures is bad news for the graphics vendor, which is already being sued by its shareholders for allegedly covering up the problems with the faulty GPUs.

In what is becoming a trend for Microsoft this year, they are once again going on the offensive against the Wii with a price drop on the Xbox 360. While this new move isn't strictly a price drop, that's certainly what it ends up being for the customer, with the introduction of a temporary item promo with Arcade users getting the option of receiving a 512MB memory card for free or a 20GB HDD for $20.

Unlike most promos, this one applies to existing customers as well – if someone purchased a Core or Arcade unit, they apparently qualify. For those that go in and buy an Arcade version, they now have the option of upgrading to a more respectable console with the inclusion of the HDD. The stock 256MB of space on the Arcade was one of the drawbacks to its $200 price tag, and this new promo clearly adds significant value to the cheap console.

The 360 price cut turned out to be a huge boon to Microsoft in terms of sales. This new offering just makes it an even better buy and comes in preparation of the New Xbox Experience, which will roll out November 19 and require 128MB of free storage space.

Have you noticed less spam in your inbox this morning? Probably not, but it just may be that the FTC has dealt a blow to the spam industry that will result in a considerable drop in how much junk email traverses the Internet. A recent announcement has confirmed that the FTC uncovered and has shut down one of the largest spam rings in the world. This one in particular churned out emails we're all too familiar with, trying to peddle prescription drugs.

How they managed to find the people behind the spam ring isn't mentioned, though they plan to reveal more information later. There's also no specifics about just how much spam this particular operation was responsible for, which is important given that upwards of 95% of email is spam. Unfortunately, so long as people continued to be suckered in by spam, it's unlikely to go away. For every spam operation taken down, it seems another five pop up.

Warner Bros. Entertainment today announced a deal that would enable online retailers to digitally distribute movies from the studio in the DivX standard format starting this month and high definition format in September 2009.

This means you'll be able to watch all the current and back-catalog Warner Bros. titles on hundreds of DivX certified devices, which include LG and Samsung phones, PlayStation 3 consoles and many Blu-ray and DVD players. The move is certainly good news for the DivX camp and marks the second deal with a major studio, following a similar one with Sony Pictures earlier this year.