Google may bring ads to phones!!!

Google's ad services may take an unusual turn in the future. Recently, a patent was filed by the search giant for a technology called “Ringback Advertising”, in which advertisements can bedelivered during “downtime” to any modern phone system. That could include when a call is on hold, being dialed or other silent times. The reasoning is that when a phone is held against someone's ear, a lot of valuable advertising time is wasted while they listen to hold music or just plain silence.

Clearly, Google's patent could take a turn for the surreal. The article brings out numerous potential flaws in the plan. Aside from the annoyance factor, Google could run into problems trying to sell this service. Advertisers may not want to buy up tiny blips of time or may be concerned about competitors stealing their silence. The patent is generous and wide, giving a lot of room to interpret.

It isn't all bad, either. There are areas where such a system could be feasible without aggravating everyone involved. Imagine an advertising-based VoIP service which allows freecalling across the world, at the expense of having to listen to an ad when dialing.

Intel's roadmap details upcoming Nehalem CPUs

A roadmap showing upcoming mobile and desktop processors based on Intel's Nehalem architecture has been leaked to Japanese site PC Watch. Although some of the information was already available through earlier leaks and rumors based on anonymous inside sources, the roadmap extends into the second part of 2010 and shows a number of previously unmentioned chips in various price segments and with different capabilities.

On the mobile front, for example, the three Core i7 Clarksfield processors that wererecently rumored for September are said to carry 8MB of cache on all but the slowest model and will apparently have plenty of headroom for increased clock speeds. Specifically, the 1.6GHz Core i7 720QM should scale up to 2.8GHz; the 1.73GHz 820QM up to 3.06GHz; and the 2GHz 920XM to 3.2GHz. The speed bumps will come through Turbo Boost, a feature that allows active cores to clock themselves up or down in steps of 133MHz as needed, as long as the CPU's predetermined thermal and electrical requirements are still met.

The quad-core Clarksfield parts should cost between $340 and $1,000 and will be joined in early 2010 by Arrandale dual-core chips, drawing 18W to 35W, as well as Intel’s Atom / Pineview series on the value end.

On the desktop side, two of the first Lynnfield processors to debut in Q3 2009 will be branded the Core i7 860 (2.83 to 3.46GHz) and Core i7 870 (2.93 to 3.6GHz), with the former getting a less power hungry version next year. Core i5 will refer to Lynnfield chips with quad cores, Turbo Boost and no Hyper-Threading; and will also debut in Q3 2009 as the 750 part clocked between 2.66 and 3.2GHz.

Project Natal coming to PCs

Microsoft certainly made a splash at this year’s E3 conference with the unveiling of Project Natal. The still in-development add-on, which detects full body movement and real world objects, seems like a natural fit for the Xbox 360 now that motion controlled gaming has become so popular – due in no small part to the Wii. In a recent interview with CNET, however, Bill Gates said the technology will also come to Windows

He wasn’t specific in details but teased that the prospects are “very exciting.” Gates believes Natal’s depth-sensing camera won't be limited to gaming use, but for media consumption as a whole, and could even find a place in the business world for interacting in meetings, communicate and collaborate.

Can you imagine yourself gesticulating at your computer screen in the future? Project Natal should arrive in little over a year for the Xbox 360, according to Gates, so it’s unlikely to make its Windows debut until at least some months after that.

LG to launch an app store tomorrow

Following the success enjoyed by Apple, other players in the mobile phone market are scrambling to catch up. LG is expecting to launcha digital content distribution service for handsets tomorrow. The company will be targeting Asia from the get-go, but they hope to expand beyond the region before the year is up.

LG intends on providing 1,400 apps (100 free) in 15 languages when the “LG Application Store” debuts in Asia-Pacific countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. The company expects to offer over 2,000 applications by the time availability is seen in Europe and South America. Plans to introduce their service to the US market are slim as it is the forefront of their competition’s (Apple, RIM) domain.

LG is the third largest handset maker, behind Nokia and Samsung.