Panasonic to show powerline network prototypes at CES

by Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

The electric car networking prototype allows people and devices inside the home to check on an electric vehicle while it is being recharged. It will be one of several research developments on show at the HD-PLC Alliance stand in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s South Hall, Panasonic said Friday. Other prototypes will include an HD-PLC adapter for a security camera and an electrical monitoring system.

HD-PLC (High-Definition Powerline Communications) is a Panasonic-developed technology that utilizes the electricity cabling already present inside a home or building to send and receive data. It’s competing in the market with the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and Universal Powerline Association to become the dominant standard for data connections over such cabling. All three systems have the advantage of not requiring dedicated Ethernet cabling, but all three are largely incompatible.

Entering your house, you unpack and plug in your newly purchased flat-panel TV. Simply and quickly - the TV automatically connects to the cable box, the DVD player, the Digital Video Recorder, the Home Theatre system, and also to the Internet.

The member companies of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance are making sure that this scenario is not a far off dream.

By developing industry-standard specifications for powerline communications technologies, the HomePlug Alliance is focused on building the market for all applications of the technology.

From in-the-home applications - such as sharing High-Definition television programming — to to-the-home applications - such as enabling utility companies to deliver high-speed Internet access to rural areas, powerline communications allows you to plug in, and simply connect!

Lots of affordable HomePlug certified products are available today throughout the world! You can use them to create a fast and secure home network that is available at every power outlet in your home.

Today’s products, based on the HomePlug 1.0 specification are typically adapters that bridge an existing networking technology (such as a wireless or Ethernet network) and your home’s power lines.

No new wiring is needed! HomePlug certified products use your home’s power lines - which are already installed - as a path to send high-speed digital data!

The technology made its first appearance at CES in 2004 when the company unveiled it as a prototype system during a keynote speech. At the time it had been proposed to the HomePlug Powerline Alliance to become their standard. A rival system was later chosen and Panasonic decided to continue development on its own.

An HD-PLC Alliance has since been formed but membership is limited. In addition to several Panasonic group companies, the main members include just three other companies: peripherals vendor IO Data and networking companies Icron and ACN Advanced Communications Networks.

Source : Macworld

Intel to Show Devices That Bring Internet to TV

By Agam Shah

In an effort to personalize the TV, Intel on Monday said it will show off prototype devices that bring the Internet to the TV viewing experience. The company plans to show off consumer electronics prototypes that run “widgets,” or mini-applications that could complement TV viewing with information from the Internet, the company said. These widgets will also allow TV watchers to talk to friends in real time or buy products advertised on TV from online stores.

The devices, which could include TV sets or cable set-top boxes, will be shown at the International Consumer Electronics Show, which will be held in Las Vegas between January 8 and 11.

Intel and Yahoo teamed up at the Intel Developers Forum in August to announce the “Widget Channel,” a hardware and software platform designed to meld television and the Internet. Though no product prototypes were shown, the companies offered developers a software toolkit to create TV applications using languages like Javascript, XML, HTML and Flash. The applications would be compatible with Intel’s x86-based chips for devices like set-top boxes.

The prototypes shown at CES will bring The Widget Channel to life, said Mary Ragland, an Intel spokeswoman.

Intel also expects to announce new partnerships with content and service providers for The Widget Channel. The company also will introduce services “moving beyond just leisure and entertainment and television,” said Genevieve Bell, an Intel fellow who specializes in studying user interaction with technology.

Televisions have always been interactive, either in the form of game consoles or remote controls, but the Internet will bring a new user experience and level of interactivity, Bell said.

Earlier attempts to bring the Internet to the television have been largely unsuccessful, but some broadband companies are trying to add interactivity to their IPTV networks. PCCW in Hong Kong is experimenting with ways in which users can upload and share photographs on their IPTV network. It is also conducting an experimental service where users can order an on-demand movie and pizza at the same time.

“Those all are still a bit clunky, but they are interesting indications of where things might move,” Bell said.

The success of these services partly hinges on the usability of the interface, Bell said. TVs are easy to use, and the interface needs to flow in smoothly without breaking the TV experience people are used to, Bell said.

A browser or search engine could complicate the viewing experience as it brings the whole Web to a user, Bell said. Users want a few attributes of the Web, like social networking features that could bring personalized information or help users connect to friends for a chat.

That sets Intel’s efforts apart from other offerings like Microsoft’s Windows Media Center, home entertainment software that lets users connect a PC to their TV so that they can record programs, watch online programs and manage other media. Windows Media Center is broader than Intel’s product, which aims to integrate certain Internet functions into TV.

Trends may change as digital media explodes and social networking choices expand, but the TV could remain a constant in accessing content and services, Bell said. TVs are ubiquitous, and its simplicity makes it a great platform to deliver the Internet to users, Bell said. The area is ripe for innovation, and social networking could especially help deliver more content and better TV viewing experiences, she said.

“I suspect it’s a tip of the iceberg to look at how you can start to have more of a blend of social networking and television content,” Bell said.

Given TV’s ease of use, some may actually prefer to use it to access the Internet, Bell said. PCs require maintenance like updating drivers and applying patches, which can get in the way of the Internet experience.

“I don’t know you, but my TiVo has never asked me to defrag[ment] it although it has a large hard drive,” Bell said.

Source : PC World

Digital TV converter coupons in short supply

By Kim Dixon

Due to a last-minute rush of coupon requests, demand may exceed supply in the coming month, said the Department of Commerce official overseeing the subsidy program.

Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who asked for the update on the digital TV transition, said Congress may need to quickly pass additional funds in early January for the coupons.

Congress ordered the switch to digital signals, effective February 17, 2009, to free up public airwaves for other uses such as for police and fire departments.

The switch will mean improved picture and sound for TV viewers, but about 15 percent of the population rely on analog-only over-the-air signals and therefore need a converter box to keep their screens from going black.

The government program doling out $40 coupons to subsidize the converter boxes is likely to reach the $1.34-billion limit of its budgetary authority in the first week of January, said Meredith Attwell Baker, acting assistant secretary for Communications and Information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

“Once the obligation ceiling is reached, the program will hold coupon requests until funds from unredeemed coupons become available,” said Baker in the December 24 letter to Markey who chairs the House subcommittee on telecommunications and Internet matters.

“NTIA realizes that this would likely result in consumer confusion,” she added. If the high demand continues at its current rate of more than 1.5 million requests per week, the agency could run out of coupons in late January.

There are about 60 models of boxes to choose from, costing between $40 and $90, before the coupon, according to Consumers Union, which produces the magazine Consumer Reports.

Markey said Baker’s response was worrying. “It is becoming increasingly clear that at minimum Congress may need to quickly pass additional funding for the converter box program in early January,” he said in a statement.
(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Inside the Perfect Laptop

Tom Yager

t's fair to say that laptops have gotten boring. For years now, they've offered pretty much the same features and pretty much the same designs. Sure, there have been a few innovations such as Apple's multitouch trackpad, but mostly laptops have had just incremental improvements such as adding more media slots over time and replacing USB 1.0 with USB 2 or FireWire 400 with FireWire 800.

So InfoWorld decided to challenge PC makers to do better. We subjected our project to the limitations that any manufacturer faces when it starts whiteboarding a new notebook. Components must either be available now in sufficient quantity to support volume production or have component manufacturers contractual commitment to availability at a supportable price within the next 12 months.

We came up with our WorldBook designs that take touch to a whole new level, integrate iPhone functions so the laptop is also a great communication station take advantage of renewable solar power and rethink the display technologies. Plus we rethought the case design to make it more durable and reconsidered what a docking station should be.

You can take a Flash tour of our two WorldBook models and even price them out along with their options. Now, if only someone would build them! (We were pleased to see that Apple's newest notebooks take up one of our ideas: the use of DisplayPort video connectors.) We also explored how to make our perfect laptop greener.

But we didn't stop there. We asked our readers to add their ideas to the table. And we got some really interesting suggestions. We learned that features we excluded for being too expensive or impractical might have enough market appeal to justify another crack at doing them affordably.

Modularity was a popular theme among our readers' submissions. More than one reader wanted a removable keyboard a removable screen a detachable camera and microphone removable wireless speakers and a removable disk drive that could be easily slipped out of the laptop and into a desktop computer.

Now that we and our readers have put a compelling design and ideas on the table, it's time for the PC makers to take up the challenge. Will it be Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba ...? If we're lucky, we'll all find out in 2009.

from : InfoWorld.com

Good-Bye, Hard Drives

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Computerworld

I'm old enough to remember when some of the first hard drives, such as the IBM Winchester-two disks with 30MBs each, hence 30/30, thus Winchester after the 30/30 rifle-showed up. I can also recall using cassette-tapes and 8-inch floppy disks on PCs. I've met people in their twenties who are unclear about what cassette-tapes are exactly and floppy disks are rapidly falling away from our collective memory. Now, it looks like hard-drives will soon be following them into history's dustbin.

Sound impossible? Actually it's all too possible. SSD (Solid State Drives) have gone from being small and pricey to being roomy and affordable. At the year's beginning, you could only find 4 and 8GB SSDs on inexpensive, Linux-powered netbooks or a 64GB SSD on the expensive Rolls-Royce of laptops, the Macbook Air.

As 2008 comes to a close though. It's a different story. The drives are getting bigger and cheaper. 128GB drives are now common, 256GBs are on their way, and Toshiba will soon be selling 512GB drives.

You say you want top performance? Then you really want a SSD. In a recent ComputerWorld review of the Intel X25 SSD, a 2.5-inch form factor 80GB drive, zipped by a Western Digital VelociRaptor. The VelociRaptor clocked in with a 250.2MB/sec. burst speed and 105.6MB/sec. average read through using the HD Tach speed tests. That's a great time. The X25, though, beat it with a 256.7MB/sec. burst speed and what's far more interesting, a sustained 230.2MB/sec. transfer speed.

SSDs aren't anywhere close to their top performance though. Micro claims that their next generation of SSDs, due out in the first quarter of 2009, will hit 1Gb/sec. throughput.

Put it all together and I can see SSDs putting hard drives out to pasture by 2009's end on desktops and laptops. After that it may not be long before they start replacing hard drives on servers. "Impossible!" You say? Think again. It seems Google is already putting SSDs into service.

It's been nice knowing you hard-drives, but it looks like we'll be saying good-bye to you soon.

from : Computerworld.com.

E-commerce Has a Good Weekend, but Remains Down

Nancy Weil, IDG News Service

Total U.S. online spending over this past weekend, a traditionally heavy shopping period, was nearly double what it was the weekend before Christmas 2007, according to comScore data released Tuesday.

However, overall online spending for November and December was down one percent compared to the same period last year. Online shoppers spent US$677 million Dec. 20-21, compared to $341 million the weekend before Christmas last year. Through Dec. 21 of this year, shoppers had spent $24.71 billion online, compared to $24.96 billion in the same period last year.

While the difference may seem slight, when coupled with a bad year for brick-and-mortar stores the online figures are gloomy for retailers dependent on year-end holiday shopping for their profits.

Severe winter storms in the northern U.S. last weekend may have boosted online sales to homebound shoppers. In addition, a shorter than usual period between the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas may be pushing more sales to later in the season.

"As a result, we've seen online shoppers continue to spend heavily even later into the season, with the most recent week including four of the top 10 spending days of the season," comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement earlier this week.

Online sales from Dec. 1 -- "cyber Monday" this year, a traditionally heavy e-commerce day -- through Dec. 21 were flat at $13.52 million, compared to $13.47 million a year ago.

Average online shopping per day from Thanksgiving on Nov. 27 until Dec. 19 was $643 million, or 5 percent higher than last year, but the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas has 16 percent fewer days, which means that daily sales have not risen enough to compensate for fewer shopping days, comScore said.

"This year's compressed shopping season has resulted in some consumers buying online later than they did a year ago. A positive late-season boost for online retail perhaps, but it's ultimately not going to do much to make up for the significantly shorter shopping season this year," Fulgoni said.

Retail analysts have said they expect already deep discounts to be even higher starting Friday, the day after Christmas, but even if post-holiday spending is robust that will just help reduce inventory rather than making it a profitable year for retailers.

from : www.pcworld.com

Intel completes work on 32nm chip technology

By Dan Nystedt

Intel Corp. on Wednesday said it has finished development work on manufacturing technology that will allow it to produce chips with circuitry just 32 nanometers in size, a billionth of a meter, by the fourth quarter of next year.

The new production technology will enable the company to lower chip costs and power consumption, while adding more speed and functionality. In general, microprocessing speeds are directly related to the number of transistors on a chip, and the smaller the transistor, the more can be packed together on a single chip die. Smaller production technology lowers costs by enabling companies to increase output.

The development also means Intel will for the fourth consecutive time match its "tick-tock" strategy, a target to introduce an entirely new microprocessor architecture alternating with new production technology roughly every twelve months.

from : www.computerworld.com

ATI, emulating Nvidia, turns its graphics chips into CPUs

By Eric Lai

ATI Technologies Inc. today announced the availability of a free download that enables its powerful-but-underused graphics processing units (GPU) to take on the work of a computer's CPU.

The ATI Catalyst 8.12 software driver lets ATI Radeon HD 4000 series-based cards accelerate tasks, such as converting DVD video into compressed video for smart-phone screens. The drivers would run on the 2 million graphic cards sold to date by vendors using the above Radeon graphics processor from ATI, a subsidiary of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

The cards can perform other tasks normally done by the CPU, such as playing back high-definition video or rendering video game images. This frees up the CPU to do other work.

First announced in November, the technology is dubbed "ATI Stream."

To show its potential, ATI released free Avivo Video Converter software, which takes advantage of the Radeon HD 4000's graphics processors to let users convert video as much as 17 times faster at up to 720p quality, said Dave Nalasco, a technical expert at ATI, during a webcast today. The entire archived webcast is available online by clicking on "On Demand" and then "Live Show Wed Dec 10 2008."

Other software that takes advantage of ATI Stream includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s PhotoShop CS4, After Effects CS4, Flash 10 player and Acrobat Reader and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista, PowerPoint 2007, Expression Encoder and Silverlight player. Video-editing applications from CyberLink and ArcSoft are expected by March.

ATI hopes to attract more developers to ATI Stream with its free software developer's kit (SDK). A beta of Version 1.3 of the Stream SDK was also released today.

"Video cards can do a lot more than just help you play games," said Rahul Sood, founder of high-performance PC maker VoodooPC and chief technology officer of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s high-end desktop and gaming PC business, in a separate interview.

Sood said operating systems, such as Windows 7 and future versions of Mac OS, are expected to draw upon the untapped power of GPUs. "This is more than a fad; it's an emerging trend."

ATI trails rival Nvidia Corp., which has been pushing its own general-purpose GPU technology for more than a year.

Last month, Nvidia released the Tesla Personal Supercomputer, which uses the equivalent of four top-of-the-line Nvidia GPUs to provide 4TFLOPS of performance. Four teraflops is fast enough that this $10,000 PC would have ranked as one of the 500 fastest computers in the world as recently as several years ago.

That underscores how today's top-of-the-line graphics cards are as expensive as the desktop PCs they are installed in and, arguably, more powerful. Cards sporting Nvidia's GeForce GTX 280 cost about $400, have 240 processor cores operating at 1.3 MHz each, and 1GB of GDDR RAM operating at 1.1 GHz.

Meanwhile, ATI's latest Radeon HD 4870 GPU has almost 1 billion transistors, more than twice as many transistors as its fastest quad-core Phenom CPU.

ATI also plans to release a souped-up processor based on the Radeon HD 4870 that costs $1,499. As many as eight of the processors can be installed in a single 4U server rack (1U is 1.75 inches high) to provide a supercomputer-like 10TFLOPS of performance.

from : www.computerworld.com

Tips: Three quick ways to improve laptop battery life

By Rick Broida

Like chocolate and episodes of Mad Men, there's no such thing as too much battery life. Alas, it's the rare notebook battery that'll give you more than a few hours -- unless you know some tricks for squeezing out extra juice.

Remember these three tips the next time you travel:

Disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Few airplanes offer Wi-Fi (yet), so turn off your notebook's power-sucking Wi-Fi radio. Same goes for Bluetooth.

Drop the screen brightness. You can afford to keep screen brightness cranked up when your notebook is plugged into an outlet, but not when you're flying coach. Drop the brightness setting a few notches, then get back to work. Chances are you'll hardly notice the difference. Then drop it a few more notches. The lower, the better.

Watch downloads, not DVDs. Notebooks are great for watching movies, but DVD drives consume a considerable amount of power. Therefore, leave the DVDs behind and choose digital downloads instead. Stock your hard drive with movies from Amazon or iTunes and you'll be able to watch longer. Don't want to pay for movies you already own? Use a tool like Handbrake to rip your DVDs, creating MPEG-4 files you can store on your hard drive (or put on your iPod, thus saving your notebook even more power).