HP was honored as “Best Printing Technology Provider” and “Best Printing Hardware Provider” during the gala awards dinner at the recent inaugural Print & Imaging Summit™, a global business event designed to help IT executives take advantage of new print technologies, services and solutions.

The awards, voted on by attending chief information officers and senior IT executives, recognize the technology providers with the best solutions and the highest level of excellence in their category.

IBM and Intel Corporation have joined in an initiative aimed at improving how IT managers select, deploy and measure virtualized server solutions for enterprise data centers. Virtualization technology, such as VMware Infrastructure, on Intel-based servers is becoming widely used in production environments and is increasing capturing mid-tier application workloads.

“As mid-sized and large enterprise IT organizations strive to cash in on the cost savings of data center consolidation through server virtualization, hosting applications on larger, more expandable multi-processor servers delivers the best return on investment,” said Jim Northington, vice president, System x, IBM. “Nevertheless, many organizations need the tools to help them select the server platform that works best in their unique environments.”

Web 2.0 applications are a combination of several technologies such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), Flash, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Representational State Transfer (REST).

All these changes mean new scanning challenges for tools and professionals.

An innovative new memory technology that promises to replace flash in a wide range of products has been unveiled by IBM and two partners who claim their phase-change technology is 500 times faster than flash and draws roughly half the power.

SAN FRANCISCO - A team of scientists has announced a breakthrough in computer memory technology that heralded more sophisticated and reliable MP3 players, digital cameras and other devices.

Scientists from IBM, Macronix and Qimonda said they developed a material that made "phase-change" memory 500 to 1,000 times faster than the commonly-used "flash" memory, while using half as much power.

Until now, I was convinced that a new Core 2 Duo-equipped Apple MacBook couldn't possibly come out this year. After all, the Apple MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) had already been announced, in what I believed was an effort to create more separation from the MacBooks. So much for that theory. One week after the MacBook Pro announcement, Apple launched the MacBook 13-inch (Core 2 Duo) ($1,174 direct as tested), thereby eliminating any differentiation between the two models. Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and move on, I guess. Despite back-to-back announcements, the move is considered perfectly timed for the holiday shopping season, and with Apple's best-selling laptop by its side, a strong fourth quarter is sure to come.

Intel is working on a transistor design that could help the company's designers pack more memory onto its processors.

Company researchers plan to present a paper this week at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco outlining its work on "floating-body cell" transistors, said Mike Mayberry, director of components research with Intel's technology and manufacturing group. Simply put, the floating body cells could allow Intel to build processors with larger amounts of on-chip memory to boost performance, he said.

One of the big questions in the chip industry today is whether Advanced Micro Devices can make the hop to 45-nanometer manufacturing in 18 months, as the company has promised. One prominent analyst says that, so far, the chances look good.

"It's definitely doable," writes Dan Hutcheson, CEO of VLSI Research.

Intel announced a new quad-core Xeon server processor Monday, a 2GHz model that originally was slated to appear in February. The Quad-Core Xeon 5335, which consumes a maximum of 80 watts, is a midrange model.

Scott Rust, senior design engineer at Neosonik, pushes a cart holding an LCD TV down the driveway. We pass a semi-constructed 1967 Mustang, a boat trailer and a couple of incomplete trucks. The guys at the neighboring warehouse are discussing a coming storm.

This morning I saw Windows Vista's performance-adjusting feature in action, when the operating system switched the user interface from "Aero" glass to "Basic."

Unlike its predecessors, Windows Vista adjusts--and even turns off--some features based on the PC hardware or software. For example, Windows Vista will turn off the "Aero" user interface for computers with insufficient graphics accelerators. Today, I experienced this capability for the first time with a software application.

PC maker competes with Sony and Toshiba on hi-def video on notebooks.

Dell today added Blu-ray disc capability to its notebook PC line, making an effort to compete with Sony and Toshiba in the growing market for mobile high-definition video platforms.

In addition to showing high-end movies and games, Dell's XPS M1710 notebook could serve as a central node to support digital entertainment throughout the home, the company said. Customers can save 50G bytes of either data or video on a single Blu-ray disc.

New 'phase-change' material used in very small cell much faster than flash

SAN FRANCISCO6: Scientists from IBM, Macronix and Qimonda today announced joint research results that give a major boost to a new type of computer memory with the potential to be the successor to flash memory chips, which are widely used in computers and consumer electronics like digital cameras and portable music players.

The advancement heralds future success for "phase-change" memory, which appears to be much faster and can be scaled to dimensions smaller than flash – enabling future generations of high-density "non-volatile" memory devices as well as more powerful electronics. Non-volatile memories do not require electrical power to retain their information. By combining non-volatility with good performance and reliability, this phase-change technology may also enable a path toward a universal memory for mobile applications.

SAN FRANCISCO  - Oracle said it had raised its bid for for the bulk of Indian banking software firm iflex Solutions to 1.3 billion dollars in what was its final offer.

Oracle offered 2,100 rupees per share in an effort to increase its stake in the company by 35 percent to 90 percent.

SAN FRANCISCO — At the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) here on Monday (Dec. 11), IBM, Macronix and Qimonda will claim that they have developed a phase-change memory prototype that boasts switching speeds at more than 500 times faster than traditional flash-memory technologies.

Recently, I had a chance to sit down with a few folks from Apple Computer Inc. who gave me a guided tour of Apple's upcoming server operating system, which is slated for release sometime in the spring of 2007. Mac OS X Server 10.5, or Leopard, will be the seventh release of the server operating system since 2000 and the second version to run natively on Intel processors.

Seoul, South Korea - South Korean researchers have designed an optical lens that can produce wide angle images without any distortion.

Sony's PlayStation 3 may be getting an update to fix the currently problematic 1080p at 24fps, component out, and the ability to upscale DVDs to 1080p.
 

Falling prices aren't the only positive news for HDTV shoppers: New and upcoming sets boast higher resolution and improved image and sound quality. Here's what to look for.

LCD televisions that can display images in 1080 progressive resolution (or 1080p, as opposed to the 720p capability of most HDTVs in our roundup) are increasingly common; and the format is getting support in such peripherals as Blu-ray drives, HD DVD drives (like Toshiba's HD-XA2), Sony's PlayStation 3, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 (via an accessory HD DVD drive). Also at hand is a growing collection of 1080p content on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.

Sophos finds three of top 10 malware threats can bypass Vista security

Security firm Sophos says three of the top ten malware threats in November are capable of bypassing Microsoft's Windows Vista's security defences and infecting users' PCs.  The Vista-resistant malware - Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D and MyDoom-O - comprise 39.7 per cent of all malware currently circulating.

Centrally managed blade workstations aren't cheap but should appeal to city traders and other demanding users

HP has introduced to Europe a blade workstation system for environments where multiple screens and high performance are vital, such as City trading rooms. As well as securely centralising workstation hardware into a datacentre, the architecture makes remote access possible for business continuity, according to HP.

A smartphone with some neat features, but its lack of a mini-USB connector makes synching tricky

Launched this autumn, Sony Ericsson's P990i should appeal to mobile professionals who need a feature-rich, versatile device. Costing £570 + VAT without a contract, the P990i weighs only 155g and runs the newest release of the Symbian OS, version 9.1.

The Videomate U500 is a USB2 digital TV tuner for your laptop or PC, jumping on the bandwagon of companies offering Freeview channels on your computer.

The package includes a software DVD player, TV player, remote control and metal USB extension lead. The TV tuner is much bigger than standard USB memory sticks and might not fit into ports alongside other USB peripherals.