Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines http://www.techeye.net/ TechEye peeks into the technology industry and investigates the doings of Intel, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Facebook, Twitter and every other firm on the planet http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification en-GB Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:26:03 GMT techeyehttp://feedburner.google.com GloFo boosts investments GlobalFoundries said it will invest up to $2.7 billion during 2010 to ramp up capacity at its facilites worldwide. The former better half of AMD declined to give a breakdown of capital expenditure per individual fab, however the company did say the m http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/b08FY7Do7LA/glofo-boosts-investments http://www.techeye.net/chips/glofo-boosts-investments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:26:03 GMT Chips GlobalFoundries said it will invest up to $2.7 billion during 2010 to ramp up capacity at its facilites worldwide. The former better half of AMD declined to give a breakdown of capital expenditure per individual fab, however the company did say the major part will be invested in Fab 1. Most of the money will be used to for "the ramp of 32/28nm HKMG technology".

Fab 1 is situated in Dresden, chip capital of the federal state known in Germany as "Silicon Saxony", and is planned to achieve an output level of 60.000 wafers per month when fully built out.

Fab 7, situated in Singapore, will have 50.000 square feet more cleanroom space and churn out approximately 50.000 wafers a month, whilst focusing on mainstream technologies ranging from 130nm to 40nm. Fab 8, currently being built in New York's Saratoga County, will produce more than 40.000 wafers per month when things are all nicely running.

Rival TSMC is currently building Phase 4 and Phase 5, which are two new buildings located at the foundry's Fab 12. TSMC wants to bring its capacity to over 200.000 wafers per month by the end of this year, whereas smaller competitor UMC aspires to make 100.000 per month.

]]> John W. Daly http://www.techeye.net/chips/glofo-boosts-investments Digital Economy Bill will financially penalise the poor Digital Economy Bill will financially penalise people http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/LvSkyGFMrak/digital-economy-bill-will-financially-penalise-the-poor http://www.techeye.net/internet/digital-economy-bill-will-financially-penalise-the-poor Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:14:09 GMT Internet Peers in the House of Lords continue to express concerns about the Digital Economy Bill, which is receiving its third reading. But the government has said there's enough protection for people already.

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer chipped in to the third reading yesterday to say that the disquiets she had at the second reading of the Bill had "not been dissipated".

She said that the House of Lords is usually assiduous "in making sure that due process is seen to be done in Bills".  But that's not happening with the Digital Economy Bill, she said.

She said the fact that peers weren't being allowed to debate on Amendment 6 "reflects poorly on the government".

While she upheld that creative industries needed protection, she said there weren't enough checks and balances to protect people.

"In particular, when a person, an institution, an internet cafe or a university is accused of transgressing these rules, it will hit the individual very hard. How will they disprove the accustations? They will have to employ a computer expert to counter the argument but there will not be legal aid for this," she said.  People needed to be protected better, she added.

And there's more, the House of Commons won't be able to come to a conclusion about this either because MPs will only get a second reading.

Government minister Lord Young of Norwood Green rejected these arguments. He said: "It is untrue that the government are backing protectionism as opposed to innovation."  There were sufficient safefuards in place, said the good lord.

]]> A staff writer http://www.techeye.net/internet/digital-economy-bill-will-financially-penalise-the-poor HP grovels to Chinese laptop users HP grovels to Chinese laptop users http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/PT0FWPSNslc/hp-grovels-to-chinese-laptop-users http://www.techeye.net/hardware/hp-grovels-to-chinese-laptop-users Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:37:14 GMT Hardware Giant combine Hewlett-Packard has decided to bite the bullet and has bowed down to numerous complaints from Chinese people who found themselves with defective notebooks.

Yesterday, said the Wall Street Journal, HP put a message on its Chinese site offering free repairs and extended warranty for computers which, let's put it plainly, were four cans short of a six pack.

Chinese consumer protection groups started an investigation last weekend into why citizens were not offered the same guarantees given to American customers because of defective Nvidia chips.

HP is now peddling the line that it was all just a matter of confusion and it hadn't intended to suggest that one American customer with an extended warranty was any better than one Chinese customer with a computer that didn't work properly.

We reported last week that quality watchdog, the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine had reacted to complaints.

The watchdog had the power to force a recall of HP machines, so presumably HP was quaking in its boots at such a thought.

]]> A staff writer http://www.techeye.net/hardware/hp-grovels-to-chinese-laptop-users Sequans samples LTE chip Sequans samples LTE chip http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/Jw5RIvv2zkc/sequans-samples-lte-chip http://www.techeye.net/chips/sequans-samples-lte-chip Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:01:26 GMT Chips While Intel and the telcos squabble over the meaning of 4G, Sequans said it has started sampling its first LTE chip.

The chip, the SQN3010, will be delivered to China Mobile. China Mobile is going to demonstrate the world's first TD-LTE demo network at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. That starts in May.

Sequans said the SQN3010 is a baseband system on a chip (SoC) complying with the 3GPP R8 standard, and giving UE category 3 throughput of 100Mbps using a 20MHz channel.

Its partners - those include Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent, will provide TD-LTE USB dongles to China Mobile for visitors to the World Expo.

Alcatel-Lucent will provide TD-LTE units to other operators in Asia, said Sequans, including a 2.5-2.6GHz band model.

Sequans also makes a mobile WiMAX chip with the eciting cognomen of the SQN1210.

]]> A staff writer http://www.techeye.net/chips/sequans-samples-lte-chip Apple is Open Source's sworn enemy Tim Bray, co-developer of XML, says that he has joined Google to fight that evil empire and sworn enemy of Open Source, Steve Jobs. http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/bd3pmMH-k8U/apple-is-open-sources-sworn-enemy http://www.techeye.net/mobile/apple-is-open-sources-sworn-enemy Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:44:48 GMT Mobile Tim Bray, co-developer of XML, says that he has joined Google to fight that evil empire and sworn enemy of Open Source, Steve Jobs.

Bray was a co-founder of Open Text Corporation, co-developer of the XML standard, and was Director of Web Technologies for Sun Microsystems.

Writing in his bog , Bray says that Apple is an enemy of open source, for using its lawyers to go after HTC, and for banning certain apps from the iPhone.

He said that the iPhone vision of the mobile Internet's future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what.

“It's a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger,” Bray wrote.

Bray said that even though the iPhone hardware and software are great, you have to sacrifice freedom to own the gear.

“Apple apparently thinks you can have the benefits of the Internet while at the same time controlling what programs can be run and what parts of the stack can be accessed and what developers can say to each other,” he said,.

Having said all that, he said that Apple builds some great open platforms. He said he'd been a happy buyer of its computing systems for some years now and, despite his current irritation, will probably go on using them.

He said that  the strength of his convictions was such that he changed his job to fight the firm but would remain a loyal Apple customer and support Steve Jobs with his cash.

Sheesh, with convictions like that, you are really going to change the world.

]]> Nick Farrell http://www.techeye.net/mobile/apple-is-open-sources-sworn-enemy MySpace flogs your data Social notworking site MySpace has started flogging user data to startup data marketplace InfoChimps . The data up for grabs includes user playlists, mood updates, mobile updates, photos, vents, reviews, blog posts, names and zipcodes. http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/ldTv4VJif5M/myspace-flogs-your-data http://www.techeye.net/internet/myspace-flogs-your-data Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:42:01 GMT Internet Social notworking site MySpace has started flogging user data to startup data marketplace InfoChimps .

The data up for grabs includes user playlists, mood updates, mobile updates, photos, vents, reviews, blog posts, names and zipcodes. Friend lists are not included.

The updates will now be available for bulk analysis for number crunching by academic researchers to music industry information scientists.

About 22 sets of data being made available are cheap. Prices range from $10 for raw dumps from the MySpace API to $300 for everything broken out by latitude and longitude. Subsequently derived data sets can be put on sale by InfoChimps users as well, with a revenue split.

Although the data does not contain personal identification, it does provide regional information. It is not clear if this is enough information to plan a good burglary.

 

 


MySpace flogs your data

Up for sale on Infochimps

 

 

Social notworking site MySpace has started flogging user data to startup data marketplace InfoChimps http://infochimps.org/ .

The data up for grabs includes user playlists, mood updates, mobile updates, photos, vents, reviews, blog posts, names and zipcodes. Friend lists are not included.

The updates will now be available for bulk analysis for number crunching by academic researchers to music industry information scientists.

About 22 sets of data being made available are cheap. Prices range from $10 for raw dumps from the MySpace API to $300 for everything broken out by latitude and longitude. Subsequently derived data sets can be put on sale by InfoChimps users as well, with a revenue split.

Although the data does not contain personal identification, it does provide regional information. It is not clear if this is enough information to plan a good burglary.

 

 

]]> Nick Farrell http://www.techeye.net/internet/myspace-flogs-your-data PC makers scared of DRAM shortage Digitimes is reporting that top PC vendors are running around banging on the doors of Taiwanese DRAM makers desperately trying to shore up supplies. http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/ZpFe-Va0_cI/pc-makers-scared-of-dram-shortage http://www.techeye.net/chips/pc-makers-scared-of-dram-shortage Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:58:05 GMT Chips Digitimes  is reporting that top PC vendors are running around banging on the doors of Taiwanese DRAM makers desperately trying to shore up supplies.

For a while people in the know and strokers of beards have been predicting that there will be an extreme shortage of DRAM.

Now apparently Dell, Asustek and Sony are trying to get Taiwanese produces to give them three-month contracts that guarantee DRAM supply.

Each of the PC vendors is seeking a supply of DDR2 and DDR3 totalling 20-30 million chips, and their suppliers will see their capacities fully loaded through the end of June.

But the suppliers are not that happy with the plan as it involves the PC Vendors effectively double ordering and will result in them having too much RAM on hand.

This means that when the shortage of DRAM bites they will not order anything. Prices will tumble and the chipmakers will have to shut down production capacity.

With fears of a shortage, the average spot prices for branded and effectively tested (eTT) 1Gb DDR2 memory are up 0.23 percent.

]]> Nick Farrell http://www.techeye.net/chips/pc-makers-scared-of-dram-shortage Google keeps us on our toes, admits Microsoft exec Google keeps us on our toes, admits Microsoft exec http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/jPiXEPkWR9Q/google-keeps-us-on-our-toes-admits-microsoft-exec http://www.techeye.net/business/google-keeps-us-on-our-toes-admits-microsoft-exec Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:34:24 GMT Business Microsoft first realised the full magnitude of the Google threat just five years ago, according to a member of Redmond’s upper echelons.

Talking exclusively to TechEye, the Microsoft exec, who preferred to remain anonymous, said there had been no particular event or product which had dealt his firm the enlightening blow.

“There was no ‘Oh S**t!’ moment,” he said. “Google had just been growing and growing, and one day we just realised that they had become this really huge deal.”

But having the Google monster as competition wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to our source.

“It helps to keep us on our toes, always creating, always pushing the boundaries. If we didn’t have Google there, perhaps we would have become more complacent,” he told us.

More complacent, Microsoft? More complacent than Vista even? Good thing Google came along then, isn’t it?!

]]> Eva Glass http://www.techeye.net/business/google-keeps-us-on-our-toes-admits-microsoft-exec Microsoft to bring Natal to PCs, smartphones "It will completely revolutionise the way people interface with their machines," he told us, waving his hands in a rather good mimic of the film Minority Report. "Mouse, keyboard, really it will all become somewhat redundant," he continued excitedly http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/TiL31Zzh2iM/microsoft-to-bring-natal-to-pcs-smartphones http://www.techeye.net/software/microsoft-to-bring-natal-to-pcs-smartphones Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:12:04 GMT Software Project Natal won’t just be coming to an Xbox near you sometime soon, it will also be coming to your PC, a high ranking Microsoft exec confided to TechEye.

At an exclusive Microsoft event, the exec said Natal would also eventually make its way into mobile phones, but that that was probably a little further down the line, and that Microsoft was currently focusing on bringing the optical sensor technology to ye old PC.

The tech enables users to use their machines without needing to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures, speech, or presented objects and images.

“It will completely revolutionise the way people interface with their machines,” he told us, waving his hands in a rather good mimic of the film Minority Report. “Mouse, keyboard, really it will all become somewhat redundant,” he continued excitedly.

Realistically, we won’t be seeing PCs enabled with Natal before the end of the year, but the console version, due out is scheduled to be released in time for Christmas 2010.

]]> Eva Glass http://www.techeye.net/software/microsoft-to-bring-natal-to-pcs-smartphones Microsoft plans heavy push on Windows 7 mobile After sitting back on the mobile front for a few years, Microsoft says that it is planning a big push for its new Windows 7 mobile OS. http://feeds.techeye.net/~r/techeye/~3/hJGjr1Tjt2o/microsoft-plans-heavy-push-on-windows-7-mobile http://www.techeye.net/mobile/microsoft-plans-heavy-push-on-windows-7-mobile Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:53:19 GMT Mobile After sitting back on the mobile front for a few years, Microsoft says that it is planning a big push for its new Windows 7 mobile OS.

Apparently Redmond has a short period of time to whip up a frenzy in the lead up to the main shopping period and is going to spend a fortune on advertising.

Several carriers have signed up for the launch  with handsets from different manufacturers.

Aaron Woodman, director of mobile communications for Microsoft said that Redmond will “heavily market” the devices.

Woodman told Dow Jones Newswires that the marketing will have to be loud to have a sizeable presence in the holiday season.

Redmond scrapped its mobile platform and starting with new software, which is more Zune-inspired interface that the company feels will better fare against smartphone heavyweights such as Apple and Rim. It is hopped that this will reverse its sinking fortunes in the mobile market.

Woodman added that it will be a long competitive battle with a lot of strong competitors.

]]> Nick Farrell http://www.techeye.net/mobile/microsoft-plans-heavy-push-on-windows-7-mobile