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It would seem that Microsoft has conceded to the requests of European regulators after facing antitrust accusations. On January 15, the European Commission charged the software giant with seeking to hinder rivals by coupling Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system. With Microsoft’s OS being used on a vast majority of the world’s PCs, the company was accused of harming innovation and limiting consumer choice.
Redmond considered stripping IE from the European version of their latest operating system, Windows 7, but has since scratched that plan. Instead, the company has proposed a consumer “ballot screen” on the system’s first boot up, permitting users to choose between several third party browsers. Windows 7 will still ship with IE, but users will have the option to disable it. PC makers will also be permitted to pre-load any desired browser onto their systems.
Things have been going relatively well for AMD in the GPU market since making a big comeback with the Radeon HD series. Their next-generation DirectX 11 part code-named RV870 was shown at Computex last month and was expected to arrive to market by the third quarter.
Though not coming from any official sources, there are rumors that AMD will be delaying the launch of its RV870 GPU until November. Though the change of date is not a dramatic one, manufacturing troubles are cited for the postponement.
Whether due to the reduction in manufacturing process or increased complexity of the RV870, TSMC continues to have problems with yields at 40nm, making it possible that AMD won't have enough parts to go around. This could be harmful to AMD, who intended to have the first DX11 hardware component on the market – a decent advantage, especially considering Windows 7’s shipment date of October 22.
Intel updated its desktop processor price list over the weekend, with several chips going down a notch ahead of the back-to-school season and AMD’s earnings announcement tomorrow. The cuts range from 11 to 19 percent and affected products are within the Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium and Celeron families – pretty much every desktop CPU line except for the Core i7.
On the Core 2 Quad front, Intel’s 2.66GHz Q9400 was cut 14 percent to $183 from $213, while its low power Q9400S variant was cut 12 percent to $245 from $277. The Q8400 and Q8400S fell 11 and 13 percent respectively to $163 and $213, while the 2.5GHz Q8300 also dropped 11 percent to $163 from $183.
Meanwhile, the 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo E7500 fell 15 percent to $113 from $133, Pentium desktop chips got cuts ranging from 4 up to 14 percent, and the 2.2GHz Celeron E1500 was reduced 19 percent to $43 from $53. The move comes as Intel prepares to introduce new Lynnfield processors in early September and gradually re-brand its desktop CPU lineup focusing on three main designations: Core i3, Core i5, and the high-end Core i7.
Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit (MacBU) has released service pack 2 for Office 2008. The update delivers a host of bug fixes in addition to several new features which reportedly improve the Office 2008 experience. Among the improvements is a new tool called Document Connection, new PowerPoint functionalities as well as speedier launch, scroll, and calculation times.
As you might conclude from the name, Document Connection allows you to access and modify documents on Microsoft Office Live Workspace via MS Office applications. By simplifying the interaction with and management of files, Document Connection makes collaboration within a SharePoint environment easier. Furthermore, Microsoft Office Live Workspace includes support for Safari 4 and Firefox 2.0.
PowerPoint now has the ability to author motion-path animations, and you can define a default theme which includes fonts, color schemes, and layouts. Installing SP2 will bring faster launch and scroll times to Word and Excel, as well as tweaked calculation performance.
Microsoft Office 2008 SP2 for Macs can be downloaded here (free, of course) and is also available via Microsoft AutoUpdate. To check out a trial version of Office 2008, click through here.
After delivering the world’s first 128GB USB flash drive,Kingston has claimed the title again for their 256GB DataTraveler 300. The drive makes use of a cap-less design which seems to employ a sliding mechanism to eject the USB head. Being larger than my primary OS HDD, I imagine this beast can host quite the cache of media.
The drive is capable of holding up to 365 CDs – or one album for every day of the year. The 256GB DataTraveler 300 features read rates of up to 20MB/s and write of 10MB/s. Given its storage capacity, the drive is a bit bulky at 2.78” x .67” x .87” but it shouldn’t detract much from its portability. While the drive is ReadyBoost-capable, its password software will not work properly if ReadyBoost cache is enabled.
It is built to order and ships with a five-year warranty and 24/7 tech support. According to Kingston’s website the DataTraveler300 is available in the Far East, Middle East and Africa only. The MSRP is £565.67 (about $935.11).
It would seem that Microsoft has conceded to the requests of European regulators after facing antitrust accusations. On January 15, the European Commission charged the software giant with seeking to hinder rivals by coupling Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system. With Microsoft’s OS being used on a vast majority of the world’s PCs, the company was accused of harming innovation and limiting consumer choice.
