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- AUO to debut 5-inch FHD OLED
- EE hopes to seduce customers with speedier 4G
- Oracle delays Itanium trial citing 'free speech'
- Microsoft-backed group calls Android anticompetitive
- US Navy deploys its first laser
- US Airforce calls cyber tools weapons
- Microsoft offers limited discount for XP users
- Forget DirectX 12 says AMD
- Business worried about US China crackdown
- Wikileaks to publish 'Kissinger cables'
| Posted: 09 Apr 2013 05:24 AM PDT Taiwanese display company AU Optronics will debut its 5-inch FHD OLED panel at China Optoelectronics Display Expo 2013 (CODE 2013) in Shenzhen, which it claims is the world's highest resolution FHD OLED. AUO will show off the panel integrated into a smartphone, managing a resolution of 443 ppi and including what the company says is a fine shadow mask process. The company boasts its panel doesn't need much power while displaying a high picture quality, a free viewing angle, high contrast, high brightness and a fast response time. It will also show off LCD panels from 5 to 5.7 inches utilising AHVA technology with the LTPS production process and Hyper LCD technology, all with full HD 720 and wide viewing angle. AUO's 5-inch Full HD AHVA display has full HD resolution of 443ppi, or 1080x1920, sporting a narrow bezel of 1mm width from the display area to the touch panel border. The company plans to demonstrate its 4K display technologies, too, including 65 inch and 55 inch panels to show off an HD resolution of 3840x2160, with the 65 inch panel boasting higher quality 3D images, the company says. |
| EE hopes to seduce customers with speedier 4G Posted: 09 Apr 2013 05:07 AM PDT Everything Everywhere is stepping up its 4G push by doubling connection speeds in ten cities. EE believes the added bandwidth will encourage more consumers to take the plunge and shift to 4G. It is also worth noting that EE will no longer be Britain’s only 4G provider as O2 and Vodafone are expected to roll out their 4G service in a matter of months. However, EE still feels in can get as many as one million 4G subscribers by year end. Although 4G is widely seen as the next big thing in mobile, European carriers failed to make it a big selling point unlike their counterparts in the US. Uptake has been relatively slow, prices remain inflated and consumers don’t appear to think 4G is worth the trouble or the price, at least not yet. Matthew Howett, telecoms regulation analyst at Ovum, believes things will change for the better. “While there may be few applications that need speeds of up to 130Mbps today, the point really is that there almost certainly will be in the future, and that by doubling the amount of spectrum set aside for the 4G deployment today, the network should have the capacity to support an increasing user base in the months to come without impacting on the customer experience,” he said. "Not so long ago, it looked like Britain would be condemned to the slow lane for years to come. However in just 6 months, over half the UK has now been covered with 4G LTE with a rollout that’s continuing at pace.” Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch.com said it will be interesting to see how other providers will respond to EE’s speedier 4G, which is bound to serve as a differentiator once O2 and Vodafone enter the fray. “Now that it has raised the bar on speed, others will have to keep up or innovate in other areas - from pricing to services,” Doku said. "It is also entirely possible that more players in the ring will simply drive down cost - which is still a concern for many - and fuel a 4G price war." A 4G price war is just what many consumers have been waiting for ever since Ofcom auctioned off 4G bands earlier this year. Most people can't justify the extra cash if their allowance ends after a little bit of HD streaming. |
| Oracle delays Itanium trial citing 'free speech' Posted: 09 Apr 2013 03:50 AM PDT Oracle has managed to delay its trial with HP, which is looking into whether it breached a contract over software support for servers running Intel's Itanium microprocessors. HP is gunning for a shed load of cash, with some sources saying that it wants about $500 million in damages. According to Bloomberg, the trial has now been delayed until the courts look into these claims. |
| Microsoft-backed group calls Android anticompetitive Posted: 09 Apr 2013 03:26 AM PDT European regulators have received yet another complaint about Google’s business practices, and this time it comes from Fairsearch Europe, a coalition of Google competitors. The complaint accuses Google of using the Android platform to build advantages for key Google apps, found on most Android smartphones and tablets. It all boils down to Google’s bundle strategy. Phone markers that agree to use Google’s Android OS are contractually obliged to ship their devices with a range of Google apps. The coalition claims Google apps feature prominently on device desktops, although what they probably mean to say is that they are featured in the app drawer or launcher panes. EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia did not comment the new complaint, but he noted that EU regulators have been examining Android independently for the past two years, the New York Times reports. However, they were trying to establish whether Google abused its dominant position in search, not whether it was unfairly bundling apps. Google isn’t keen to comment on the complaint, either. Thomas Vinje, the lead lawyer for Fairsearch Europe, argued that Google’s practices result in unfair advantages, as Android powers over 70 percent of the smartphones shipped in Europe. Nokia and Microsoft are members of Fairsearch Europe. Both outfits have dabbled in mobile operating systems, and both bundled their own apps on every single smartphone they ever shipped. Microsoft has played a similar role before, as an influencer on the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, ICOMP, which urged the European Commission to investigate Google for anticompetitive search practices. It gets even trickier, as Android is an open operating system and the vast majority of consumers use Samsung, HTC, Motorola or LG gear. They all ship with custom launchers and apps. Only Nexus products boast a plain vanilla Android experience. In other words, Fairsearch Europe might as well be going after Samsung rather than Google. |
| US Navy deploys its first laser Posted: 09 Apr 2013 02:03 AM PDT The US Navy is going to deploy its first on ship laser next year and has been showing one in action on YouTube. It is the first ever ship-mounted laser, a disruptive, cutting-edge weapon capable of obliterating small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles with a blast of infrared energy. They are designed to tackle one of the biggest headaches for capital ships – massed fleets of small boats, like pirates or the Iranian navy. Suicide attacks on bigger boats by such smaller fleets can do a lot of damage because they are harder to hit with conventional weapons. The shipboard laser which will be installed in early 2014, is a solid-state laser prototype. It will become part of the weaponry of the unfortunately named USS Ponce and packed off to the 5th fleet region in the Middle East. A Navy press release video shows the laser locks onto an unmanned drone, which bursts aflame in mid-flight. The drone soon catches fire and crashes into the sea below. These are exactly the sort of small surveillance drones that Iran uses. The Navy says the laser can also take out the small, armoured speed boats that Iran also favours. Navy researchers say the laser destroys its targets all the time. It can also be used to send non-lethal pulses to boats too. Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, chief of Naval Research said that each gun cost $32 million to produce. But it only costs a dollar every time you fire it. The US Navy has done a little better than the Air Force which recently cancelled project to put nose-mounted lasers on its aircraft. But there are some concerns that the laser cannot fire in poor weather conditions. It is not certain if it can hit faster moving objects, such as fighters. Its power is too low to hit cruise missiles. |
| US Airforce calls cyber tools weapons Posted: 09 Apr 2013 02:01 AM PDT The US Air Force has defended itself against evil accountants by designating six software tools as weapons so that they can compete for scarce dollars in the Pentagon budget. Lieutenant General John Hyten, vice commander of Air Force Space Command, told Reuters that it was the only way he could make sure that cyber software gets more attention and the recognition that it deserves. While everyone in the Pentegon admits that cyber weapons are the way forward, defence is being cut because the country is broke, and there is no one really left to fight now that the Russians have taken their ball back. Hyten said the Air Force is also working to better integrate cyber capabilities with other weapons. We guess he means developing a bomb you can send by email or a Facebook page which bores people to death but leaves buildings standing. Hyten did not say what the six cyber tools were. We know for example that the United States and Israel developed the Stuxnet computer virus that was used to attack an Iranian uranium enrichment facility. He might have six similar projects on the boil. Hyten said the Air Force waned to expand its cyber workforce of about 6,000 by 1,200 people, including 900 military personnel. Hyten said the Air Force was trying to increase investment in cyber security already being made by private industry. However there was still a lot of work to do to improve connections with the companies that operate the largest computer servers. |
| Microsoft offers limited discount for XP users Posted: 09 Apr 2013 02:00 AM PDT Windows XP is being retired from Microsoft’s support roster this time next year and now Redmond is offering discounts to XP users who choose to upgrade. Since it did such a wonderful job with Vista, Win 7 and Win 8, Microsoft is practically paying people to upgrade, and it does not seem to be finding many takers. SMBs still stuck on XP and Office 2003 can get a 15 percent discount for Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 purchases, reports Computerworld. Since Microsoft’s Open License website lists Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 for a total of $561, the 15 percent discount translates to about $84. It might not sound like much, but it helps, especially if SMBs are in the market for multiple licences. However, the offer only stands for customers running XP Professional and consumers must buy the licences via Microsoft’s Open License programme. Furthermore, the discount is limited to 100 licences per client and it will last until 30 June. Another problem is hardware and software compatibility. XP is 12 years old and it is used on antiquated boxes. Although many of them can be upgraded to cope with Windows 8, some bits of hardware can’t. The same goes for specialised software developed ten or more years ago. |
| Posted: 09 Apr 2013 01:59 AM PDT AMD has surprised the tech press by saying that it did not believe that there would ever be a DirectX 12. AMD's vice president of global channel sales, Roy Taylor, stated during an interview with German magazine Heise.de that AMD did not think it will see a DirectX 12 API. That includes seeing a DirectX 12 with Windows 8, or Windows Blue. We reported on his views about APU futures, here. He said that the days where the industry has refreshed DirectX continuously and new graphics cards needed more processors and more RAM were over. Taylor was chatting about next-generation GPUs and technologies that they can be built around. He said that while they would normally build them around new DirectX versions to help the next-generation GPU architectures, this was not possible any more. This is because there will not be a DirectX 12, which means AMD's next-gen GPUs will integrate other technologies. He failed to mention what he thought these "other technologies" were. The lack of faith that Taylor has in DirectX might have come from a memo which was leaked by Microsoft in January this year which claimed that it had had enough of the technology. An email was sent to its XNA and DirectX MVPs notifying them that as of April 1, 2014 "XNA/DirectX will be fully retired from the MVP Award Programme". The email said that DirectX was no longer evolving as a technology and further "value and engagement" cannot be offered to the MVP community. It said that as result, effective April 1, 2014 XNA/DirectX will be fully retired from the MVP Award Programme. This caught the industry on the hop as Direct X was baked into a lot of Microsoft software. The email was immediately denied by Microsoft. It issued a statement saying that DirectX was an "important and evolving technology for Microsoft". The spokesperson added that "Microsoft is actively investing in DirectX as the unified graphics foundation for all of our platforms, including Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone. DirectX is evolving and will continue to evolve. Vole had no intention of stopping innovation with DirectX". Microsoft claimed it had people across multiple divisions working on DirectX technologies and was innovating and evolving DirectX. However it looks like AMD does not believe that and is looking elsewhere. What Taylor thinks the industry needs are more games like Crysis or Bioshock Infinite 3, to encourage the industry to keep users hooked. The PC gaming industry is undergoing a renaissance at the moment and Taylor said that AMD would continue to bundle chips with games. |
| Business worried about US China crackdown Posted: 09 Apr 2013 01:56 AM PDT US businesses are starting to get a little worried about the new spirit of McCarthyism which is starting to kick off in Washington. The US has been attempting to purge Chinese businesses from lucrative contracts claiming that they are communist spies. But yesterday the US China Business Council slammed a new law aimed at thwarting cyber-attacks by discouraging the Justice Department and several other government agencies from buying information technology systems from China. John Frisbie, the group's president said that while the national security of the United States is critical, it must not be used as a means of protectionism. In a stiffly worded letter to leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives he called for them to block similar measures in the future. Frisbie said that product security is a function of how a product is made, used, and maintained, rather than by whom or where it is made. He said that imposing a country-specific risk assessment creates a false sense of security if the goal is to improve our nation's cyber security. China also wants the United States to repeal the law, which they said uses Internet security as an excuse to take discriminatory steps against Chinese firms. The Information Technology Industry Association, Business Software Alliance and other business groups have also written to the government to tell it to sling its hook. They fear Chinese retaliation and copycat legislation in other countries that could damage US interests. Some are worried that the new laws could inadvertently impede the US government's ability to use the latest cutting-edge technology to protect itself. |
| Wikileaks to publish 'Kissinger cables' Posted: 08 Apr 2013 08:24 AM PDT Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks is publicly dumping just under two million diplomatic cables - dubbed the Kissinger cables - from the mid 1970s. Wikileaks has put together a search function on its website so users can comb for keywords in these Kissinger files as well as the 'Cablegate' files, which were largely from the mid-2000s. Called PlusD, or the Public Library of US Diplomacy, it's possible to search through the 1,707,500 diplomatic 'Kissinger Cables' from 1973 to 1976 and the 251,287 'Cablegate' cables. There are already some interesting allegations surfacing, including that former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi was involved in an arms deal, the BBC reports. Another cable talks of one diplomat's first impressions of Margaret Thatcher, claiming that she is a "genuine voice of a beleaguered bourgeoise [sic], anxious about its eroding economic power and determined to arrest society's seemingly inexorable trend towards collectivism". Wikileaks figurehead Julian Assange is still holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, which he is unable to leave due to threat of arrest. He is facing sex offence allegations in Sweden, which he denies. The searchable documents are available here. Some are still censored and classified, but Wikileaks says the metadata or the existence of the files may assist in filing Freedom of Information requests. |
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