Posts in PC & Peripherals
Seinfeld and Vista, what gives?
Leslie Katz | Aug 22, 2008
(Credit: Seinfeld)
The comedian, best known for his eponymous NBC sitcom, will reportedly get US$10 million for the campaign, which is expected to play off the phrase "Windows, Not Walls", and to stress the connection between people and ideas.
Comedians Will Ferrell and Chris Rock were also considered for the new advertising spots, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the marketing push. The paper said Seinfeld will receive about US$10 million for his efforts and will appear alongside former Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in some ads.
But is a 1990s sitcom star really the best celebrity to help make Vista cool? Tell us what you think in our poll. And if Seinfeld shouldn't be the master of the Vista domain, who should be? Let us know in our TalkBack section.
Via Crave CNET
DisplayLink now optimized for Intel integrated chipset
Eric Franklin | Aug 21, 2008
Three displays connected to one system all via USB only.
(Credit: DisplayLink))
Previous systems with integrated graphics were only able to connect one addition display via DisplayLink. Now with these new Intel specific optimizations, users with PCs based on the Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family can easily connect to up to four monitors at once without the need of buying addition graphics cards. In addition, users that run four monitors on the Intel chipset will enjoy a 20 percent performance improvement which includes smoother video playback according to DisplayLink.
Users that have an Intel Series 4 chipset-based system should be on the lookout for the drivers to be implemented via Windows Update.
Via Crave CNEt
SingTel chooses Silverlight for Grid Girls site
John Chan | Aug 20, 2008
Visit any site with fancy effects and moving images and you'll most likely expect it to run off Adobe's Flash technology. Well, Singapore operator SingTel is bucking that trend and decided to go with Microsoft's Silverlight technology to power its Formula One (F1) Grid Girls site.
First, a little bit of background. These Grid Girls are actually participants in a reality TV contest to find three that will appear at the opening of the race. SingTel is the organizer of this contest and has created a Web site to feature the final 20 contestants.
So, is there a big difference whether the site uses Silverlight or Flash? To the user, not much apparently. One thing most people will notice is the need to download a plug-in, whether you are using IE or Firefox. It's a 4.7MB download and we got the site to work seamlessly with both browsers.
According to a report from ZDNet Asia, Crayon Digital, the company that built the site, claimed that it is quite "light" and so doesn't require the end-user to have lots of bandwidth. It also said that Microsoft had invested financially in the building of this SingTel site.
In any case, what will matter to most visitors (read: men) to the site are the wealth of pictures and even a zoom-in feature. By the way, don't get your hopes up if you are using Linux or the Opera browser--compatibility for those is still not perfect.
Intel finally delivers a SATA solid-state drive
Justin Yu | Aug 20, 2008
Intel finally announced its own SATA solid-state drive (SSD) for notebook and desktop clients, and our secured lab has become a feeding frenzy of folks geeking out on the X25-M, just one of the SSD drives Intel introduced at its Developer Forum in San Francisco.
The mainstream SSDs will come in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch models and both will use standard multi-level cell NAND flash memory that will hopefully translate to a lower cost-per-bit for the consumer.
As of the time of this announcement, Intel hasn't released pricing. We're crossing our fingers that the company will eventually price these drives within a reasonable range for the average consumer; most current 64GB SSDs fall around S$1,300 (US$955.88).
Along with the 80GB drive, Intel also sent over its own system benchmarks that show a 50 percent improvement in system performance as well as a nine-fold improvement in HDD performance.
Via CNET Crave
What recession? Gartner predicts IT spending growth
Margaret Kane | Aug 19, 2008
Worldwide IT spending should top US$3.4 trillion in 2008, up 8 percent from 2007, research firm Gartner is predicting.
But much of that growth is due to the decline in the US dollar. When adjusted for currency issues, worldwide spending is predicted to grow only 4.5 percent.
Software spending and IT services are expected to see the biggest gain, up 10 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively, in 2008.
Analysts attributed some of the software growth to replacement cycles, but noted that "the replacement of systems does not automatically equate to new software market growth".
"Software as a service/cloud computing, service-oriented architecture/Web 2.0, and open-source software are causing huge changes to the software market," wrote Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner in a research note. "Many of these factors are impacting market growth as enterprises replace assets with per-use services."
Hardware spending is expected to rise 7 percent in 2008, thanks to strong Asia-Pacific and Western Europe sales and a global shift to mobile computers.
Via CNET News
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