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Monthly Archives: June 2009

Adobe Feeling Financially Week

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Adobe announced it has shut down its entire North American operations for one business week to help cut costs as the global economy continues to hurt the American tech company. The week-long shutdown started on June 29, with business expected to return to normal starting Monday, July 6, though the company has already carried out [...]

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Universal Translator Cometh

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The first iterations of something akin to the universal translators used on Star Trek may soon be arriving via your smartphone. A merger of two companies on Tuesday, Dial Directions in San Francisco and Sakhr Software Co. in Vienna, Va., brings together technologies that can turn an iPhone, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device into a [...]

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USB Music Tube

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The sheer number of choices for USB sound cards tells us there’s not much room for innovations, but someone manages to teach the old dog new tricks. Rather than a dongle form factor, the USB Tube Delight Audio is a vacuum tube-lookalike whose LED glows in blue when plugged in. 3.5 mm headphone jack and [...]

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Apple Wants Better Control

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Apple Insider noted today that the 625K update Mac OS X 10.5.7 for the MacBook Air contains firmware tweaks to the logic board that controls the power functions, thermal management, the sleep LED, and battery. Apple confirmed that the firmware update was to work with a new series of internal MacBook Air replacement batteries. Like [...]

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It’s Not Just for Dead Bodies Any More

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Criminals of all kinds are digging tunnels along the U.S. border at a fast and furious pace. Of every tunnel ever discovered by U.S. border patrol agents, 60 percent have been found in the last three years. Agents spot a new one every month. “All of them have been found by accident or human intelligence,” [...]

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The Seventh Estate

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Verizon’s fiber to the home system is wicked fast and fires lasers through tiny glass tubes—undeniably cool stuff. But Verizon claims far more than the mantle of “cool;” the company says that its FiOS system is now the “leading real estate development amenity.” “Home shoppers use to scan the prospect for a Jacuzzi or an [...]

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AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

AVerMedia is one of the leaders in PC-based tuner technology, and the company’s latest card for turning your PC into a conduit for HDTV is the AVerTVHD Duet, a PCI Express (PCIe) x1 internal expansion card for desktop systems. It has two TV tuners, both digital, that allow you to watch and record two shows [...]

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My Kind of Fan

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Scythe has introduced the BIG Shuriken (SCBSK-1000), this CPU cooler is designed for systems with very limited height restrictions. The Scythe BIG Shuriken is pretty big, it features a 120mm fan but has a height of only 58mm. It will be available in retail stores for $34.95 (24.95EUR, excl. VAT). More

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Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

A top Microsoft executive today denied reports that European users will pay more for Windows 7 because of the company’s wrangling with antitrust regulators. In a statement first posted as a letter to the Financial Times Web site, Bill Veghte, the senior vice president for the Windows business group, said “nothing about this [case] will [...]

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So Yeah, I Ordered Windows 7 Professional from COSTCO

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

As far as I’m aware, it won’t be available until October 22nd. So I sent myself a birthday message as part of the shipment. Then I get this e-mail confirmation a few minutes ago…. (Click the image if you can’t read it.) Shipped next business day? Wow… How fast the summer went by.

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AMD Squeezes Out a Four-Core Opteron with a Purpose?

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Brad Pitt’s brother isn’t the only one to live in the shadows of a more famous sibling. The latest AMD OpteronTM 1000 Series processor, codenamed “Suzuka”, was launched in the shadow of its 6-core bigger brother, the Six-Core AMD Opteron processor codenamed “Istanbul.” The AMD Opteron 1000 Series processor is designed for applications that are [...]

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That’ll Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Some small PC makers are paying a price for Windows 7 upgrades, but they have given a vote of confidence to the OS as it could deliver more profits by attracting buyers to purchase new systems. But in the free upgrades for customers, some small PC makers are being saddled with upgrade costs of between [...]

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Yahoo Data Center for the Birds

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Yahoo thinks its plan for a new data center could eventually help the company achieve carbon-neutral status without having to resort to the purchase of carbon offsets. Yahoo designed its forthcoming data center to let outside air cool the servers at all times, borrowing the idea from the design of a chicken coop, according to [...]

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But They Don’t Want It!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Microsoft will start pushing Internet Explorer (IE) 8 to business users via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) on August 25, according to a June 29 posting on the IE Blog. Microsoft already began pushing IE 8 to users via Windows Update and Automatic Update in April. If WSUS admins aren’t ready/willing for IE 8 to [...]

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Maine Mac Men

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Maine Department of Education said Tuesday that it plans to expand to high school students a program that has provided Apple notebook computers to all of the state’s middle school students for the past 7 years, creating “the world’s largest educational technology program of its kind.” As part of the deal, the Maine Department [...]

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