Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Discover a New Perspective with 8.9 Inch Eee PC 900


Taipei, Taiwan, April 15, 2008 – Amid the buzz of reaching a new milestone of 1 million Eee PCs sold in just 5 months after its launch, ASUS has provided yet another round of excitement with its release of the new Eee PC 900. This new generation of the ever popular PC packs in a whole range of hardware that includes a 8.9 inch widescreen, a 1.3M pixels webcam, the new innovative FingerGlide and 12GB and 20GB storage capacities for Windows and Linux platforms respectively – catering to wider consumer needs while still maintaining the "Easy to learn, work and play" concept by keeping the overall weight under 1kg.

Mobility is one of the major factors attributed to the Eee PC’s success; and this is in part due to the use of the built-in Solid State Disk (SSD) technology – which offers a quiet, energy saving and shock proof design for stable computing on-the-go. Traditional hard disks spin at 5400 RPM (Revolutions per Minute) – making them more prone to data loss or damage if shocks or bumps are received. Conversely, the Eee PC is able to protect against such incidents, and is the perfect tool for outdoor computing – suitable as an ideal companion for reporters, wildlife photographers and other like-minded outdoor enthusiasts."Vital feedback from a wide variety of users have been received, which has spurred us on to create more options to cater to different user requirements." said Jerry Shen, CEO of ASUS.

A-DATA Expands USB Flash Drives To 32GB


A-DATA Technology, a worldwide leader in high performance DRAM module and flash memory products, today announced its largest capacity USB flash drives in two models, the 32GB PD2 and PD9 that it is expanding its USB flash drive family lines with new 32GB capacity offerings.New Solution for Backing-up Critical DataAs there are more and more customers use portable storage devices to back-up critical or sensitive information, customers care about the capacity of their storage device. A-DATA understands what customer currently need and announces its latest high-capacity USB flash drive, the 32GB PD2 and PD9 which is about the size of 69.6mm x 17mm x 10mm (L x W x H ), and is small and light enough to be taken anywhere. With its enormous 32-GB memory capacity, the PD2 or PD9 USB Flash Drive allows users to store massive volumes of all sorts of personal files, music, digital photos, and even full-length HDTV movies and still have space left for work or school documents. PD2 and PD9 are also available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities that provide complete choices for all customers. A-DATA PD2 and PD9 32GB USB flash drives are available through A-DATA’s authorized distributors worldwide. All A-DATA flash products are backed with complete customer service and limited lifetime warranty.

AMD launches first computer brand


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc on Sunday unveiled its first computer brand, aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, with design and sales help from its major chip customers such as Dell Inc.
AMD Business Class desktop personal computers will be followed by notebook PCs in the second half of this year.
AMD customers who plan to sell the computers include Acer <2353.tw>, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Hewlett-Packard Co , and Lenovo <0992.hk>, said Hal Speed, a marketing architect for AMD based in Austin.
"It's not like retail," he said. "People are buying this for work and we really tried to identify the nuggets (of technology for business desktop PCs) that weren't being looked at."
The new product line is part of AMD's efforts to regain its competitive edge against Intel Corp after a disastrous 2007. AMD has reported six consecutive quarters of net losses as Intel has regained much of the market share that it lost to AMD in 2005 and the first part of 2006.
AMD is also seeking to use the leverage it built with the success of its Opteron microprocessors, which have made inroads into the server market over the last few years against Intel, a larger company.
"AMD has tackled the consumer market, they've made significant inroads into the mobile PC market, and they've made some inroads into the business market," said Dean McCarron, an analyst at market research firm In-Stat. "This is an important program for them."
AMD said Business Class is initially aimed at the small- and medium-size business market, but is also designed to scale up to the biggest corporate clients as well. The desktops include AMD Phenom X3 triple-core and AMD Phenom X4 quad-core processors as well as AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processors.
PC makers can also choose AMD 780V chipsets or optional ATI Radeon HO 3000 series graphics chips, and the platform will also support non-AMD graphics and chipsets, such as graphics chips from ATI rival Nvidia Corp.
Analysts said that big-business customers like a General Electric Co as well as small and medium businesses want stability, longevity, reliability, manageability and good performance in the PCs they buy for their employees.
"Where AMD has been lacking is in business PCs with deployments in the thousands of units," said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, a market research firm.
"Big companies replace thousands of PCs over the course of more than a year and during that time they don't want what they are buying to change in terms of configurations."

Microsoft could nominate proxy slate of directors for Yahoo, says report


NEW YORK : Microsoft could make its next move against Yahoo Wednesday with the software giant likely to try and replace Yahoo's board of directors, the Wall Street Journal reported. A Microsoft deadline for the Internet service company to accept its 44.6 billion-dollar (28.5 billion-euro) acquisition offer expired at midnight Saturday, without comment from either side. The two sides have had no formal negotiations since then but Microsoft's next move could come as early as Wednesday, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. One option being considered is nominating a proxy slate of directors that Yahoo shareholders would be asked to vote onto their company's board, replacing current officials. Microsoft has already selected 10 nominees and three alternates, an unnamed source told the newspaper. Such a move "would represent a largely unanticipated middle path for Microsoft between walking away from its bid and pushing forward an aggressive hostile-takeover campaign," the newspaper reported. It would allow the software giant to delay fixing a firm new price on its offer for Yahoo, while preserving the option of going directly to Yahoo shareholders with a hostile takeover bid, the newspaper pointed out. In an open letter to the Yahoo board of directors on April 5, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer gave the Internet pioneer three weeks to accept the 31 dollars-a-share takeover offer or face a proxy fight. Ballmer also warned that any further delays could result in a less attractive offer for Yahoo. But Yahoo's board of directors has said the offer "substantially undervalues" the California firm, insisting it is worth at least 40 dollars a share. Microsoft is eager to merge the two companies' resources to take on Google, which dominates the lucrative Internet search advertising that is expected to grow to 80 billion dollars annually worldwide in the next two years. - AFP /ls

106 mpg Air Car to come to U.S. by 2010

A company named Zero Pollution Motors says it plans to bring a car powered by air to the U.S. sometime in 2009 or 2010. The six pistons in the Air Car's engine are pushed by compressed air rather than gasoline combustion, an idea developed by F1 race car engineer Guy Negre. The car carries a compressor, making it possible to fill its compressed air tank by plugging it into an electrical outlet. At low speeds, the engine is cranked solely by air from the tank. At high speeds, it uses gasoline to heat a chamber, giving the air pushing the pistons more pressure. In high speed mode, it also compresses air to inject into the cylinders. According to its initial, estimated, specifications the Air Car will go 848 miles on an 8 gallon tank of gas. The size of the compressed air tank isn't included in the specifications. Further, the car has a top speed of 96 mph, with its power plant putting out 75 horsepower. When traveling at low speeds, the car has zero emissions, while in high speed mode it has some emissions because of its use of gasoline.

The Air Car was developed by The MDI Group, which received funding from Indian car maker Tata Motors to build the car for the Indian market. Zero Pollution Motors intends to market the Air Car in the U.S. The body of the car is made from fiberglass and foam, and is built as a six seater. Instead of the usual speed and RPM gauges in the dashboard, the Air Car will use an in-dash computer with displays for speed and engine revolutions. This dashboard computer will also be used for navigation, media playback, and communication. The Air Car sounds promising, and we will be eager to see if it really lives up to its specifications.
(Source: AutoblogGreen)