Month: May 2010

Fusion Processor by AMD Will Ship This Year

The microprocessor company AMD has released details about their new Fusion CPU. The Fusion combines both the Central Processing Unit and the Graphics Processing Unit into one quad-core processor. AMD merged with the computer graphics company ATI in 2006, and was looking to expand their share of the market. The concept behind the Fusion is pretty simple, they are just placing the two separate dies into one processor. AMD is among the companies that are looking for ways to break new ground in the netbook...

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Adobe Calls Out Apple Yet Again

The battle between Apple and Adobe just got a little more intense. Adobe rekindled the fight after it was decided that the iPad wouldn’t support Flash.  The  battle started when the iPhone was first released. The first generation iPhone didn’t support Flash, but Adobe decided to make it available in the App Store.  It would now seem that Flash will never be available on the iPhone. Recently, Adobe launched an ad campaign saying that they love Apple, but what they don’t love is “…having restrictions placed on what you create…”, obviously talking about Flash. Adobe then decided to take out ads in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and made a comment to the company saying that they were stifling competition. Adobe issued a statement saying ‘We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs,’ The letter also read ‘No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.’ Apple then slammed Adobe’s Flash program, saying that it had major technical drawbacks. People connected with the  ongoing issue said that US antitrust enforcers also may investigate Apple after a complaint from...

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Microsoft Ends Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support

Microsoft announced this week that they will end the support program for Windows XP Service Pack 2. Windows XP is still being run by thousands of businesses not yet ready to make the switch to Windows 7. This now presents a challenge in finding a download of SP3 or upgrading to Windows 7. In 2004, Windows XP SP2 was released and represented a ton of new advances in the Windows OS. Some people had issues with the illusive download of SP3, saying it crashed their systems. This will most definitely have an impact on the businesses still running, and even a jump in Windows 7 sales. Microsoft has made Service Pack 3 widely available to those who prefer not to make the jump to Windows 7. The download is being sold on Microsoft’s website for...

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Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Leaked

For those waiting to upgrade to Windows 7 until the first Service Pack is released, now is the time. On Wednesday, the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 beta was leaked to a foreign technology website.  People had wanted to wait until the first service pack was released to make the switch from Vista, so this may lead to the Windows OS gaining more market share. As you may remember, Windows 7 took more market share than all Mac OS versions in a short period of time. The fixes in SP1 are mostly minor, and nothing really groundbreaking, but the really big deal with SP1 is that most businesses wait for the first Service Pack before upgrading. The service pack will most likely lead to a big jump in sales among the Business Edition. The full service pack is rumored to release some time this summer, and will add even more to the Windows 7 experience. SP1 will be the next and newest step in the Windows 7...

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Facebook Heading for a Face Off and Hires the Big Gun?

This morning, Tech Crunch reported that Facebook had hired former FTC Chairman, Timothy J. Muris to represent them against the growing scrutiny in Washington  over new Facebook privacy policies. Powerful Anti-Trust lawyer, Muris held his FTC chairmanship under the Bush administration and is the creator of the   U.S.  Do Not Call Registry. The negative reactions to Facebook’s new Open Graph API, announced in the past two weeks has been growing in furor .  Several members of Congress and at least 14 Advocacy Groups for Privacy have joined in asking that the FTC regulate Facebook’s new policy that is currently an opt-out to force it to make Open Graph an opt-in. The supposed hiring of of Muris would seem to be a good step in light of  the direction from which this negative response is coming. But later today we learned that Facebook is denying that they have, in actuality, hired Muris as of yet. This would be a formidable job that Muris could well-handle, especially in tandem with Facebook’s recently hired, director of public policy, Tim Sparapani who is an ex- American Civil Liberties attorney. There has been much made of Facebook’s new plans in the media. On Saturday Morning, Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO (Chief Security Officer) Online., was interviewed on The Early Show and gave her list of 5 Dangers of Using Facebook”: Your information is being shared with third parties...

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