Nearly 40 Million Windows Vista Licenses Sold in 100 Days

Windows Longhorn imaginatively named Windows Server 2008

In 100 days after its January launch, nearly 40 million Windows Vista licenses have been sold, announced Bill Gates at the 16th annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC). The milestone has Microsoft claiming that Windows Vista is the fastest-selling operating system in history.
“As of last week, we've (sold) nearly 40 million copies,” Gates said. “That's twice as fast as the adoption of Windows XP, the last major release we had.”
Of the near 40 million copies of Windows Vista, 78 percent are premium editions that feature advanced features and the Aero user interface.
Gates also revealed that the formerly code-named Windows Server “Longhorn” will be called Windows Server 2008.
Acknowledging that the blandness of name choice for Microsoft’s next server product, Gates joked, “We've been working hard thinking about it. We played around with a couple different ideas, but what we are going to go with is...Windows Server 2008. We know it's a surprise for us to pick something so straightforward.”
Despite Gates’ apparent happiness with having the fastest selling OS yet, things weren’t always rosy at Microsoft when it came to Windows Vista. In February, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that piracy was to blame for the slow initial sales of the new operating system. Then in March, the software company announced that the sale of Windows Vista licenses more than doubled those of Windows XP during its first month of availability.

Reference: Marcus Yam, dailytech

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Fujitsu Announces Its FMV-U8240 UMPC

Fujitsu launches the world's smallest UMPC
Fujitsu is jumping on the Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) bandwagon with its FMV-U8240 UMPC. DailyTech first mentioned the Fujitsu UMPC back in April when all we had to go on was a single image of the device from IDF.
The FMV-U8240 is billed as the world's smallest UMPC weighing in at just 1.3 pounds. The device also measures 6.73" x 5.24" x 1.26". Battery life is described as 4 hours with the standard battery and 8 hours with the extended battery.
"The Fujitsu UMPC combines Fujitsu's systems expertise with Intel's low power processor and chipset," said Intel Senior VP Anand Chandrasekher. "The emerging UMPC category delivers the functionality of the PC and full Internet to users who are constantly on the go in ultra light and small form factors."
The FMV-U8240 features a 5.6" (1024x600) display and a built-in keyboard (14mm key pitch, 1.3mm keystroke). The device also comes standard with Intel A100 (800MHz) processor, 20GB HDD, a fingerprint scanner, USB port, Secure Digital slot, CompactFlash slot and 802.11g wireless connectivity. Surprisingly, Bluetooth support is not a part of the equation.
There will be three versions of the UMPC available. The first model will feature the Windows XP Professional operating system and just 512MB of DDR2 memory. The latter two models bump the memory count up to 1GB but are available with Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business respectively.
The models featuring Windows XP Professional will be available in June, while the sole model with Windows Vista Business will be available in early July. Pricing in Japan is listed at $1,195 USD for the base model and $1,362 USD for the 1GB models.

Reference: Brandon Hill, dailytech

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AMD Launches ATI Radeon HD Family, Finally

AMD announces its long-awaited ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, seven months after its initial launch date

AMD is prepared to launch its ATI Radeon HD 2000 family tomorrow. The new ATI Radeon HD 2000 family consists of the HD 2400, HD 2600 and HD 2900 graphics processors, formerly known as RV610, RV630 and R600, respectively. Although AMD will announce its ATI adeon HD 2000 series, only the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT will have immediate availability. The accompanying ATI Radeon HD 2400 and HD 2600-based products are paper launches.After months of delays, AMD’s R600 GPU is finally ready for consumer purchase. Only one ATI Radeon HD 2900 model will launch today in XT guise. DailyTech previously pitted the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT up against NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTS. The ATI Radeon HD 2900 XTX previously benchmarked by DailyTech will not hit retail channels, for now. AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT packs 320 unified stream processors with an estimated 47.5 Gigapixels/sec pixel processing rate. The 320 stream processors are joined by 16 texture units and render backends. AMD claims the 740 MHz ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT delivers 475 GigaFLOPS of processing power in multiply-add, or MADD, calculations.AMD pairs the 700 million transistors GPU with 512MB of GDDR3 video memory. The 1.65 GHz GDDR3 memory communicates with the GPU via a 512-bit memory interface, delivering 106 GB/sec of bandwidth. The new ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT continues to make do with an 80nm fabrication process to consume approximately 215 watts of power altogether. Although images have shown the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT with dual dual-link DVI ports, the card does in fact support HDMI output. An included adapter allows users to experience high-definition video and 5.1 surround sound audio via HDMI output. Also bundled with the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT are keys for Valve’s upcoming Half Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress 2. The keys allow owners to download the games, when released, over STEAM.Taking on NVIDIA’s recently launched GeForce 8600 family is the new ATI Radeon HD 2600 series. AMD plans to paper launch the ATI Radeon HD 2600 in PRO and XT guises. The ATI Radeon HD 2600 series features 120 stream processors. The GPU is clocked anywhere between 600 to 800 MHz depending on flavor. AMD backs the 120 stream processors with eight texture units and four render backends. The amount of processing power brings the ATI Radeon HD 2600 GPU transistor count to 390 million. Nevertheless, the ATI Radeon HD 2600 is manufactured on a 65nm process. AMD rates power consumption at approximately 45 watts.AMD pairs the ATI Radeon HD 2600 GPU with GDDR4, GDDR3 or DDR2 memory. Manufacturers can equip cards with 256MB of video memory clocked anywhere between 800 MHz to 2.2 GHz, on a 128-bit memory interface. ATI Radeon HD 2600-based cards will also support HDMI audio and video output via adapter.At the bottom of the new ATI Radeon 2000-series lineup is the ATI Radeon HD 2400 series with PRO and XT models. The new ATI Radeon HD 2400 features 40 stream processors with four texture units and render backends. GPU clocks vary between 525 MHz to 700 MHz. The ATI Radeon HD 2400 series features less than half the transistors as the HD 2600 – 180 million. AMD has the ATI Radeon HD 2400 series manufactured on the same 65nm process as the HD 2600. Power consumption of the ATI Radeon HD 2400 hovers around 25 watts.Add-in board manufacturers are free to equip ATI Radeon HD 2400 series graphics cards with GDDR3 or DDR2 memory. The GPU supports 128MB or 256MB memory configurations on a 64-bit memory interface. Memory clock can vary from 800 MHz to 1.6 GHz depending on model. Expect ATI Radeon HD 2400 series graphics cards to support HDMI audio and video output via a DVI to HDMI adapter. Despite an announcement for the complete ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT will be the only card available for purchase tomorrow. The ATI Radeon HD 2600 and HD 2400 series will hit retail in late June 2007 with an accompanying benchmark NDA lift. Expect to pay $399 for an ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT tomorrow from the usual add-in board partners including Diamond Multimedia, HIS, PowerColor and Sapphire Technology. AMD expects to target the ATI Radeon HD 2600 series towards the $99 to $199 market segment and ATI Radeon HD 2400 series towards the less than $99 segment.

Reference:Anh Huynh, dailytech

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iPods Can Cause Pacemakers to Malfunction

Check that iPod when you're around the elderly
A 17-year-old high school student in Michigan has uncovered that iPods can cause pacemakers to malfunction. In a study that tested 83 elderly patients, an iPod was placed just two inches from the patient's chest for five to 10 seconds. Telemetry interference occurred in 29 percent of the patients, and a pacemaker misreading the heart's function occurred in 20 percent of patients, according to HealthDay News. In some cases, electrical interference was detected from as far as 18 inches away, and in one patient, the pacemaker stopped working.
Jay Thaker, son of an electrophysiologist and a rheumatologist, was put in touch with Dr. Krit Jongnarangsin, assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan, to help investigate the effects of iPods on pacemakers.
"We took patients from a pacemaker clinic, got consent, and we put the pacemaker programmer on them to view what was going on inside the pacemaker on a screen," Thaker said to the Denver Channel. "And then we took the iPod and held it about two inches above the implant site of the pacemaker."
"If the pacemaker is inhibited by the iPod and the patient does not have their own rhythm, they can be in serious problem," added Jongnarangsin.
Dr. Jongnarangsin astutely points out, "Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," but adds that the phenomenon needs to be studied more. Only iPods were used in the test, and it’s unclear if other portable music players may also pose such a risk to pacemakers.
Although iPods aren’t usually in the hands of those with pacemakers, such individuals could come in close contact with those who do carry around Apple’s music player. Apple announced in April that it has sold its 100 millionth iPod, making it a particularly popular device in the hands of the general public.

Reference: Marcus Yam, dailytech

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Xbox 360 Software Update Improves HD DVD Sound Quality, Compatibility

Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now with better aural pleasure

Last week, the Xbox 360 received its Spring Dashboard software, and today the console gets a software update for its HD DVD add-on peripheral. The most notable in this update are improvements to the player’s ability to decode audio streams.
Prior to the update, the Xbox 360 HD DVD player had difficulties decoding Dolby TrueHD audio, leading some titles, such as Nine Inch Nails: Beside You In Time and Poseidon, to exhibit “static popping” and “clipping” during playback. The new software resolved all such audio issues.
While the HD DVD player supports all audio formats for the spec, the Xbox 360 hardware itself is unable to output the true lossless Dolby TrueHD stream. Instead, the Xbox 360 downsamples the lossless stream into a lossy bitstream that can be outputted via the console’s optical toslink connection. Added in the new software update is a full bitrate 1.5 Mbps DTS and WMA Pro as an option for downmixed audio output, along with the previous 640 kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 option.
Even movies without Dolby TrueHD tracks will likely get a boost in audio quality. The original software for the drive ran the audio in a perpetual “night mode,” which dynamically compressed the range of the soundtrack. The update now gives the user to disable the dynamic range compression, leading to a greatly expanded aural experience.
“[The old software] 360 HD DVD audio is reducing dynamic range and that makes the sound worse than it needs to be,” explained Amir Majidimehr, corporate VP at Microsoft’s Consumer Media Technology Group. “The new software unlocks the dynamic range and will give you a pretty big boost in performance.”
Tests of the HD DVD add-on’s playback before and after the update demonstrated that the new software does indeed resolve all known Dolby TrueHD decoding issues. The audio from the Nine Inch Nails concert disc sounds noticeably better after the update, though audiophiles would still be able to identify differences between the downmixed track and a lossless Dolby TrueHD track from a standalone HD DVD machine. Majidimehr is confident that the improved audio options offered by 1.5 Mbps DTS and WMA Pro streams will make the compressed streams nearly indistinguishable to all but the most dedicated audiophiles.
Compatibility of the player has also been improved, fixing certain disc-specific issues. Some users reported that the audio would fall out to of sync with the video on certain Dolby TrueHD titles, such as Batman Begins, though all those issues are now said to be resolved. “Let me say that we have fixed all the lip sync issues reported. So there should be no concerns about that in general,” assured Majidimehr.
The last bit of noticeable change in the new software is the additions of subtitle, camera angle and audio buttons – functions that do not exist on the Xbox 360 media remote. Now users can toggle those settings from the display button rather than having to navigate through the disc’s software menu.
The new Xbox 360 HD DVD software is available now and is automatically downloaded as soon as a user is connected to Xbox Live and attempts to play a movie. Along with the great strides in audio, Microsoft has also improved image quality for those using a VGA output on the Xbox 360, helping the console match up even better against standalone HD DVD players.
Reference: Marcus Yam, dailytech

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