The New 2 Tera Bytes Hard Drive was Born!

Western Digital on Tuesday introduced a 2-TB hard drive to its environmentally friendly Caviar Green product line. WD believes many consumers are ready for such a large capacity drive to store video, pictures, audio, and other files in their expanding media libraries. Quoting market intelligence firm Trend Focus, the hard-drive maker claims about 10% of 3.5-inch drives sold today are at the 1-TB level or higher.

The Caviar Green product line is one of WD's most successful product lines. The line leverages WD's Green Power,a collection of technologies designed to reduce power consumption. The drives are designed for use in USB, FireWire, and eSATA external hard drives, desktop computers, workstations, and desktop RAID environments.

"With the launch of the new WD Caviar Green 2-TB hard drive, customers receive the additional capacities needed to operate today's highly advanced programs and high-resolution digital files while using less power than typical drives with similar performance and capacities," Jim Morris, senior VP and general manager of client systems at WD, said in a statement.

The latest drive has a 32-MB cache and aSATA interface with a maximum data-transfer rate of 3 Gbps. The product consumes 7.4 watts in read/write mode and 4 watts at idle. In standby and sleep mode, the drive consumes less than a watt.

The 2-TB drive, available at WD resellers and distributors, has a manufacturer suggested retail price of $299. The model number is WD20EADS.

WD and main rival Seagate (NYSE: STX) are the world's two largest hard-disk drive suppliers, accounting for about 60% of the market. Neither company, however, has been immune from the economic downturn.

WD in December announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce, or 2,500 employees, to cut costs. Seagate this month said it would cut around 10% of its U.S. workforce. The company employs about 54,000 people, with the majority working in the United States.

AMD Drops Price

How many of you guys or ladies is using a AMD processor?don't you think that amd processor is not very stabil in their pricing?

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) on Wednesday quietly lowered the price of two high-end Phenom II quad-core desktop processors, a move that came a couple of days afterIntel (NSDQ: INTC) slashed prices on a variety of chips.

The new prices for the 3.0-GHz Phenom II 940 Black Edition and the 2.8-GHz Phenom II 920 were cut $50 and $40 to $225 and $195, respectively, a company spokesman told InformationWeek. AMD planned to make an official announcement in a day or two.

In the meantime, both chips were available at a lower price as of Wednesday through online retailer Newegg, which was selling the Phenom II 940 for $235 and the 920 for $195.

AMD lowered the prices in response to the economic slowdown and also to make room for new chips scheduled to ship next month, the spokesman said. While declining to provide details, the upcoming products will be available with AMD's new AM3 chipset, which supports DDR3 memory. AMD currently offers the AM2+ chipset that supports the slower DDR2 memory.

The price cuts come as Intel lowered prices on some of its quad-core desktop and Xeon server processors by as much as 40%. Besides the fierce competition between the two rivals, both companies appear to be responding to a down market brought on by the economic slowdown.

AMD is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on Thursday. Intel last week reported that net income plummeted by 90% and revenue fell 23% in the final quarter of last year, as the chipmaker felt the effects of an economic recession that has resulted in a drop in PC sales.

Global PC sales in the fourth quarter fell for the first time in six years, according to researcher IDC. Shipments dropped 0.4% from a year ago and 2.5% from the third quarter. The decline followed a half-dozen years of rising shipments, with the last five averaging increases of 15%.

Do You Actually Hate Vista? You May Like the Fix

For an operating system that took five years to create, Windows Vista’s reputation went down in flames amazingly quickly. Not since Microsoft Bob has anything from the software giant drawn so much contempt and derision. Not every company lives to see the day when its customers beg, plead and sign petitions to bring back the previous version of its flagship product.

One thing’s for sure: it won’t take Microsoft five years to produce the next Windows. The company wants to put Vista behind it as soon as possible. In fact, the next version of Windows is almost here already. It’s called Windows 7, and it’s available as a free download, in surprisingly smooth, stable test form, from microsoft.com/springboard (until Saturday).

It looks and works a lot like Vista. In fact, what Microsoft seems to be going for in Windows 7 is “Vista, fixed.”

If you ask the masses what they disliked about Vista (as I did using Twitter last week), you’re likely to get a certain common set of responses. That list of grudges makes as good a framework as any for assessing the prospects of Windows 7, which is expected to arrive within a year.

It’s naggy and intrusive. Windows Vista is always popping up warnings and messages, making you wish you could just be left alone. Many of them stem from the much-despised, Orwellian-named User Account Control (U.A.C.) feature, which is supposed to warn you about virus and spyware installations that would otherwise take place behind your back.

Trouble is, U.A.C. was way too suspicious, demanding your name and password even when it was just little old you making innocent changes (like setting your computer’s clock). In Windows 7, you can tone U.A.C. down — eliminating the warnings, for example, when you, the human, are the one making changes.

Furthermore, Windows 7 bites its tongue far more often. Ten categories of low-urgency alerts no longer appear as taskbar balloons; now they get consolidated in a new Control Panel called the Action Center. A tiny flag icon appears on your system tray to let you know that new nags are waiting there.

It’s slow. Microsoft definitely got the message here. Even in the test version, you can feel that a lot of things are faster: starting up (40 seconds on my three test machines), shutting down, reconnecting to wireless networks, copying files and inserting flash drives, for example. It’s no Windows XP, but even with months of fine-tuning still to go, 7 feels snappy. (On a Mac, paradoxically, it’s positively supersonic.)

It’s a resource hog. Microsoft intends to keep the same system requirements for Windows 7 that it had for Vista (at least a one-gigahertz processor, one gigabyte of memory and so on). This time around, though, fewer people will have to buy brand-new PCs to run it, because three years will have elapsed. Fewer people will be installing the new Windows on 2003-era computers.

Windows 7 is also supposed to be less bloated. (“Memory usage was reduced in hundreds of places,” says the reviewer’s guide.)

It’s incompatible. A big part of the Vista misery involved incompatible software and drivers. There’s no greater headache than updating your PC and finding out that you can’t use your printer, scanner or favorite program.

Even by Microsoft’s reckoning, only 2,800 programs have been certified to work with Vista so far, out of the tens of thousands available.

As Microsoft puts it: “If it works in Windows Vista, it will work with Windows 7.” That’s not great, but what else can Microsoft do?

It’s confusing. In Vista, a lot of things got moved around or renamed, often with no discernible purpose. There’s even more of that going on in Windows 7.

Among other changes, the Pictures, Documents and Movies folders have been replaced by something very cool — but very confusing — called Libraries. They’re virtual folders. Click the Pictures library, for example, to see all the pictures on your entire PC or even your network, no matter what folders they’re really in.

Oh, and talk about baffling: The core accessory programs for an operating system these days — e-mail, address book, calendar, photo management, movie editing and instant messaging — won’t come with Windows 7. Unless you buy your PC from a company that preinstalls these programs, you’ll have to download them yourself from a Microsoft Web site.

Microsoft explains that this added inconvenience permits it “to provide more frequent updates for consumers.” Beg pardon? Who complains about the frequency of updates to their address book program?

The editions are bewildering. Windows Vista is sold in at least six versions: Home Basic, Business, Ultimate and so on, each with a confusing and sometimes illogical subset of features. Officially, Microsoft says it hasn’t selected Windows 7’s version scheme, although a product manager at a conference mentioned to me that it will probably be similar to Vista’s. Ah, well — can’t win ’em all.

Not all of Windows 7’s features are intended to address Vista’s deficiencies. Some are all-new.

Jobs leave Apple.inc with bad condition?yes or not?

Shares of Apple Inc. fell to a new two-year low Tuesday -- the day before the iPhone and iPod maker is set to release its fiscal first-quarter financial report.

Apple shares fell $4.13, or 5 percent, to finish trading at $78.20 -- their cheapest since December 2006.

In a client note, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that, based on data from research company The NPD Group, he thinks the company's shipments of Mac computers and iPods "rebounded" in December and brought total sales for the quarter "slightly above previous Street expectations."

After analyzing NPD data, Munster thinks Apple sold 2.5 million to 2.6 million Macs during the quarter, while he believes analysts' general estimate is for sales of about 2.5 million Macs.

Munster also thinks that, based on NPD data, Apple sold 19 million to 20 million iPods; he thinks analysts' were expecting about 18.6 million iPod sales.

"Given concerns regarding iPod weakness, we believe the segment's outperformance relative to Street expectations is a positive," said the analyst, who rates Apple shares "Buy" with a $235 price target.

Meanwhile, American Technology Research analyst Brian Marshall reiterated his "Buy" rating and $100 price target for the stock in a note to investors.

Marshall expects the company shipped about 2.7 million Macs, 16.3 million iPods and 4.5 million iPhones in the quarter.

"Despite the negative news regarding (Chief Executive) Steve Jobs' health outlook and the weakening economy, Apple is down only 4 percent vs. the S&P 500 down 6 percent year-to-date," he said.

Belkin's Crush

Belkin was found paying users about 65 cents to write good product reviews at the Amazon Mechanical Turk website

Belkin's Business Development Representative, Michael Bayard, was caught offering money for 100% good reviews about Belkin products at Amazon.com and other e-tailing sites. The Daily Background uncovered this news from Amazon's Mechanical Turk website. After the buzz created on the web, Belkin acted swiftly and removed the postings and reviews. Also, Mark Reynoso, Belkin's President reacted to the incident by writing a letter in which he apologized for the unethical practice.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a service where registered users get paid for petty computing tasks provided by requestors. A request from Mike Bayard asked a user to review a product and give a 100% rating (as high as possible). Basically, the post insisted that users write fake positive reviews about Belkin products and give them 5 out of 5 rating. In return, the users got paid 65 cents.

Fake reviews were posted on Buy.com and Newegg.com besides Amazon.com, and thus mislead a buyer to purchase what could be a bad product. Soon after this shocking discovery, Michael Bayard's Linkedin profile disappeared, and the product reviews post and the fake reviews were pulled down from the web.

Belkin President, Mark Reynoso wrote a public letter apologizing for unethical practices.

"...it was with great surprise and dismay that we discovered that one of our employees may have posted a number of queries on the Amazon Mechanical Turk website inviting users to post positive reviews of Belkin products in exchange for payment."

Paying to write good reviews for a product, especially a bad one, is unethical and totally self-degrading. This shakes the faith that consumers place on existing and upcoming organizations.

Intel lower processor prices up to 48 pct-Bloomberg

Intel (INTC.O), the world's largest chip maker, has cut the price of some processors by as much as 48 percent as it confronts slumping demand and new lower-cost chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N), Bloomberg reported.

The price of Celeron 570 processors, designed for laptops, dropped 48 percent to $70 whereas one of the company's quad-core desktop-computer models, which have four processors on one piece of silicon, dropped 40 percent to $316, the news agency said.

Intel kept the price of its three most expensive desktop chips unchanged, the report said on Tuesday.

Intel was not immediately available for comment.

The U.S. company had said it expects margins to bounce back to "healthy" levels by the second half of 2009, but held back on giving detailed quarterly forecasts when it issued earnings on Jan. 15, citing economic uncertainty. [ID:nN15543836] (Reporting by Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore, editing by Dan Lalor)

Intel lower prices n' Adding New Chips To Lineup with AMD

Intel (NSDQ:INTC) confronted its sagging sales figures head on over the weekend, slashing prices for 20 older processors in its lineup by as much as 48 percent and debuting several new, low-power chips. With the chip giant's disappointing fourth-quarter numbers reflecting tough times for its distribution channel as well, Intel partners like Bill Paschick were encouraged by the price cuts.

"We mainly focus on the quad-cores, the 9550 and 9400, so it really is helpful. It's nice to see that Intel is going to bat for partners like us," said Paschick, president of Rain Recording, a builder of high-performance desktop and mobile audio workstations.

Intel on Sunday lowered the price for its 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad Q9550 part from $316 to $266, a 16 percent price cut. The chip giant also dropped the price on the 3.0GHz Q9650 by 40 percent -- taking the top part in the Core 2 Quad family from $530 down to $316. Other adjustments in that category included price cuts for the 2.66GHz Q9400 (20 percent, from $266 to $213), the 2.50GHz Q8300 (18 percent, from $224 to $183) and the Q8200 (16 percent, from $193 to $163).

Whether the price cuts have more to do with Intel's own inventory needs or some pressure from the well-received new Phenom II desktop processors from Advanced Micro Devices, Paschick said better deals on older product is more than welcome given current economic conditions.

"In this climate, mature technology is more attractive. As a system builder, as a manufacturer, even as a consumer, if you can help me make some cash by making use of things I have laying around, the more I love you. Everybody's having inventory issues and the herd is thinning everywhere you look," he said.

Intel's newest family of processors, the first three Nehalem-class Core i7 chips released last November, continue to be priced at their initial levels, including $999 for the 3.20GHz Core i7-965 Extreme Edition. The top quad-core part from the older Core 2 architecture, the 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9775, is still the most expensive non-server/workstation chip in Intel's stable at $1,499.

Intel also cut prices for two Core 2 Duo parts, several Pentium and Celeron chips and the top four Xeon server processors in its X3000 series for 1p servers. The biggest price cut in percentage terms was the 48 percent reduction for the 2.26GHz Celeron 570 mobile processor, from $134 to $70.

The chip giant also quietly introduced, by way of its updated processor price list, several new energy-efficient processors manufactured at Intel's current 45-nm process node. These include three new 45 nm Core 2 Quad desktop parts designated with an "s" -- the 2.83GHz Q9550s (12 MB L2 cache, $369), 2.66GHz Q9400s (6 MB, $320) and 2.33GHz Q8200s (4 MB, $245).

Intel, which suffered a 19-percent sequential drop in revenues for the just-concluded financial quarter, is projecting a continuation of that trend in the current three-month period, according to executives. AMD, which has downgraded its fourth-quarter revenue expectations and laid off more than 1,000 employees in recent weeks, reports its Q4 earnings Thursday.

Mail Carrier Enters Plea

A mail carrier accused of stashing thousands of pieces of mail in a storage unit instead of delivering them has pleaded guilty to deserting her route. The authorities say the carrier, Jill Hull, kept unopened mail for more than two years in the unit in Fowlerville, about 50 miles west of Detroit. The stash was discovered in September. Ms. Hull, 34, appeared in federal court in Detroit. The authorities said she told an agent that she could not keep up with the job.

Intel expects margins in "heathly range" by second half

* Sees margins improving by second half to "healthy range"
* No Q1 rev estimate but planning internally for $7 bln
* Wall Street's Q1 revenue view $7.2 bln
* Q4 EPS 4 cents, matches Street view 4 cents
* Shares up more than 4 pct in relief rally (Adds executives' comments, context)

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Intel Corp expects margins to bounce back to "healthy" levels by the second half, but held back on giving detailed quarterly forecasts when it issued earnings on Thursday, citing economic uncertainty.
Shares of Intel, a bellwether for the global technology sector, rose 4 percent in a relief rally following the report. The world's largest chip maker had issued two revenue warnings in the past three months and sent shivers through the technology sector.
Despite the stock gain, the global economy continues to cast a pall over the tech sector, which is struggling through one of its toughest periods as layoffs continue to rock the industry as consumers and businesses dial back on spending.
Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini acknowledged the fourth quarter was a difficult one. Revenue fell 23 percent from the year-ago period and profit tumbled 90 percent.
"Putting our results into perspective, this is only the second time in 20 years that our fourth-quarter revenues were below the third quarter," he said on a conference call.
But he vowed to continue the pace of investment in research and development, while at the same time remaining focused on fiscal discipline. Intel also said it had no plans to reduce or eliminate its dividend.
Investors had feared that Intel would slash revenue expectations for the first quarter. Instead, it said it was not providing an outlook but "for internal purposes, the company is currently planning for revenue in the vicinity of $7 billion".
That was toward the low end, but did not miss entirely a range of analysts' forecasts of $6.56 billion to $7.8 billion for first quarter revenue. The average estimate was $7.2 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
"People were expecting very, very ugly numbers. Intel delivered mixed numbers, slightly better than the bears expected," said Patrick Yang, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan.
HOPE FOR MARGIN IMPROVEMENT
Intel warned that gross margins, closely watched by investors, will slip from 53 percent in the fourth quarter to the low 40s in the first quarter because of start-up costs and as it used less manufacturing capacity. But it held up hope for improvement.
"I think my gross margin will go up a bit and I think it's back into what I would call a healthy range by the second half," Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said on the call. "Without anticipating a big snapback in demand, I would anticipate that Q1 is the trough."
Shares of Intel, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, rose to $13.85 from their close on the Nasdaq of $13.29. The stock had lost about 10 percent of its value since it warned on Jan. 7 that fourth quarter revenue would miss expectations.
Some analysts feared the rally will be short lived with chip sales sliding as PC makers and other technology manufacturers trim inventory and cut back on purchases amid a slowing global economy. Intel is the world's largest maker of microprocessors, the brains of personal computers.
"They were playing it cautious by not officially providing guidance," said Edwin Mok, analyst at Needham. "The big surprise was gross margins, which they guided for the low 40s. I'm concerned that the company is not letting up on its start-up investments in the face of the economic slowdown."
In November, the Semiconductor Industry Association forecast a 5.6 percent decline in global chip sales in 2009.
Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc said last week it expected to post additional restructuring charges for fiscal 2008 and 2009. ID:nN09290536
Intel's fourth-quarter net profit was $234 million, or 4 cents a share, while revenue was $8.2 billion. That matched Wall Street's expectations, which were lowered after the revenue warning last week. The results included a $1 billion writedown related to investments in Clearwire.
Microprocessor and chipset units were "significantly" lower than the third quarter, Intel said, although revenue from its Atom chip, used in many low-cost netbook computers, jumped 50 percent to $300 million.
The overall microprocessor average selling price was flat, or slightly higher excluding Atom, Intel said. (Additional reporting by Sue Zeidler, Robert MacMillan and David Lawsky; Writing by Edwin Chan; editing by Richard Chang, Tiffany Wu and Carol Bishopric)

Apple's CEO saying that "Apple Without it's own core??"

Steve Jobs' medical leave comes at a time when Apple is well-positioned, but no one can fill his many roles At that moment ...Steve Jobs went back to work in 2004 after surgery for pancreatic cancer, he was asked in an interview with BusinessWeek about the significance of his role at the company. First he joked about being "head janitor," but then turned serious. "Ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together," he said. "Otherwise, you can get great pieces of technology all floating around the universe, but it doesn't add up to much."

The question now is whether Apple is losing its gravitational force. On Jan. 14, the 53-year-old Jobs said he will take a medical leave of absence through June. "My health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought," he said in a public statement. Within minutes of the news, Apple shares dropped 10%.

Missed Already

The fear is that Jobs may never return—and Apple won't be the same company without him. Jobs was kicked out of the company in 1985. By the time he came back in 1996, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. "What is an Apple that doesn't have that charismatic figure?" says analyst James L. McQuivey of Forrester Research (FORR).

Jobs plays many roles at the company. He's the perfectionist who pushes his team to create elegant, iconic products. He's the marketing guru who took technology advertising mainstream, with the Orwellian ad that introduced the Mac in 1984 and most recently with the "I'm a Mac" ads. And he's the master of the keynote address, capable of drawing unmatched publicity for Apple's latest products.

The CEO exerts far-reaching control through his weekly Monday management sessions. With a handful of executives, he makes decisions large and small, from whether to enter a new market to what color marble to use in a new Apple retail store.

His greatest value to Apple may be the influence he has with employees and outsiders. Only Jobs is capable of convincing the 32,000-person company that it can wade into new business—like music or cell phones—and rewrite the rules of competition. While mobile-phone rivals produce dozens of models designed to meet the needs of various consumers, he came out with a single iPhone—and took a big chunk of the business. He also persuaded AT&T and other wireless operators to give up control over what software can be installed on the iPhone, giving Apple the opportunity to distribute new applications for the device.

In the PC business, Jobs has steadfastly refused to lower prices in line with the rest of the industry. Instead, by focusing on quality, Apple has lifted margins and market share at the same time. Jobs says his approach comes from his long history with personal computers. "Look, I was very lucky to have grown up with this industry," he said in that previous interview. "I did everything in the early days—sweeping the floors, buying chips, you name it. I put computers together with my own two hands."

Jobs is leaving his day-to-day duties to Tim Cook, Apple's well-respected chief operating officer. And investors may be reassured that the CEO is taking his leave at a time when Apple looks well-positioned for the next few years. But the company can't live off its existing products forever. "It makes you wonder whether the Apple of the future is one that can't make dramatic leaps," says Forrester's McQuivey.

Microsoft Looks Beyond Vista with Windows 7

A first look at the first beta of Microsoft’s Windows 7 shows an operating system that takes advantages of features first introduced in the troubled Windows Vista while offering its own share of new enterprise features. Changes to the Start Menu and taskbar in Windows 7 are improvements over Vista and XP, but for some tasks, users will have to rely on third-party applications.

Without a doubt, the first beta edition of the Windows 7 operation system indicates that Microsoft is on the right track to shore up many of the perceived flaws of Windows Vista...

At the worst!Windows should know what they had did wrong in their first planing for "Windows 7"

While not a ground-breaking release—Windows 7 is at its core very similar to Windows Vista—the new OS has adeptly taken advantage of under-developed features first introduced in Vista, creating a more intuitive and flexible user experience.

Windows 7 offers enterprise customers several compelling new features, such as BranchCache file caching, DirectAccess VPN-replacement technology, and out-of-the-box readiness for BitLocker (features I will look at in depth in part two of this review next week). The primary thrust of Windows 7 is to provide users a better experience in the way they use computers today. And at its heart, Windows 7’s greatly improved emphasis on workflow and organization makes the operating system much more palatable for heavy-duty users used to operating with a large number of open windows and applications.

I spent the bulk of my time using the 64-bit iteration of Windows on a Dell XPS M1330 laptop that came with 3 GB of RAM and a 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 processor (Windows Experience score of 3.0, with the disk drive as the lowest common denominator). I also spent some time with the 32-bit iteration of Windows 7 installed within a VMWare ESXi-based virtual instance.

The New Taskbar, Start Menu and Desktop

The most immediately obvious improvements to Windows 7 are the significant changes to the taskbar and Start Menu. With each of the last few iterations of Windows, Microsoft has taken a stab at updating the look and feel of the default desktop experience, changes that in the past failed to keep me from reverting to a previous “classic” theme within minutes.

So far though, I am really taking to the Windows 7 look, which is fortunate since Microsoft appears ready to cut ties with the past, making it more difficult to revert to an old look than was the case in Windows XP or Vista.

With the Windows 7 taskbar, Microsoft has removed some of the distinction between running and dormant applications. From an icon in the taskbar, users can launch a dormant application or view and select from open windows if the application is already running. As with Windows Vista, users can hover the cursor over the taskbar icons to display thumbnails of open windows and dialog boxes for that particular application (by default, up to 10 thumbnails will show for a given application—any more and the user will instead see a list).

However, with Windows 7, users can now hover over a thumbnail to get a full screen preview of the window in question. They can also easily close open windows from the thumbnail by clicking on the small red X displayed when hovering over the thumbnail.

By default, Windows 7 comes with three applications displayed on the taskbar (Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and Windows Media Center), but users can pin shortcuts to other programs to either the taskbar or the Start Menu. Users can also arrange the taskbar icons in any order they wish, as Windows 7 automatically creates keyboard shortcuts to fire up these taskbar-borne applications, based on their order, left-to-right (by pressing Win+1, for instance).

Windows 7 also introduces the concept of jump lists, which is basically an organized set of application-specific links. For instance, right-clicking on the IE icon in the taskbar displays the browser history, allowing the user to go immediately to a recently visited site. Similarly, right-clicking on a Microsoft Word icon shows a list of recently opened documents.

This feature is certainly handy, but there are a few drawbacks. For some applications, I’d like to see the ability to customize the jump list—for instance, making the IE jump list show bookmarks rather than history. Obviously, third-party ISVs also need to code the jump list feature into their offerings, as I found applications like Firefox and Adobe Reader could not offer this handy shortcut feature at this time.

The Start Menu, meanwhile, looks similar to the Windows Vista default. On the left, users see a running list of recently used applications (although users can choose to pin shortcuts here as well). On the right, users see links to commonly used folders: personal ones like Documents, Music, or Pictures; and system-specific destinations like the Control Panel or Computer. Users can also customize the Start Menu to change the links to these locations to menus.

Users can also easily view or access the desktop, no matter how many windows might be open at the time. The absolute right edge of the taskbar contains the Show Desktop button. Hovering the cursor over the button shows a preview of the desktop, or clicking on it sends the user straight to the desktop (and clicking it again returns the user to the last screen in focus).

However, with the new organization of the taskbar and Start Menu, I’ve found little reason to return to the desktop. I’ve organized my taskbar with links to the applications I use on a daily basis, and populated the Start Menu with a second tier of applications that I use less frequently. Unfortunately, third-party applications still tend to clutter the desktop with shortcut links, a practice I hope will disappear once Windows 7 gains some market share.

An otherwise empty desktop could leave room for Gadgets, a feature that never took off in Windows Vista. In Vista, Gadgets were confined to the Sidebar—a feature that used a lot of system resources and took up a good amount of screen real estate. In Windows 7, though, the Sidebar is gone and Gadgets can be moved freely around the desktop. Unfortunately, the same measly collection of Gadgets exists (CPU meter, RSS reader, Calendar, Weather, etc), but with their new freedom and a less cluttered desktop, perhaps interest in developing new Gadgets will increase.

Display Management

One area where Windows 7 makes a dramatic improvement over Windows Vista or XP is with display management. Previous iterations of Windows could handle multi-display setups at a basic level, but I’ve found I needed to add third-party software solutions to be able to manage and customize the monitor the way I like. Inevitably, with each PC I use, I’ve had to turn to third-party solutions—from video card manufacturers, PC vendors, or third-party ISVs—for tools like Ultramon or Display Fusion.

First of all, Window 7 once again makes it easier to get to the display configuration dialog. Windows Vista unfortunately added an extra step to access display configuration from the desktop, as users had to select the Personalize option, then click on Display Settings. However, with Windows 7, users can right-click on the desktop and select the new Screen Resolution option from the context menu. From there, I could easily set the alignment of my monitors, tune the resolution of each, select the orientation of each (portrait versus landscape), and choose whether to clone the screens or extend the desktop across both.

My favorite aspect to the new display controls, however, is the newly added support for hotkeys that allow me to control window size and the proper monitor for open windows without requiring me to touch the mouse. With Windows 7, I could move open windows from one display to the next (Win+Shift+Left or Right), shrink (Win+Down), or maximize (Win+Up) open windows. I could also dock open windows to either corner of the display (Win+ Left or Right).

Windows 7 also makes it easier to hook up a projector, as I could easily reach the right configuration screen from the Screen Resolution dialog, or by simply typing Win+P and selecting the desired display mode.

Unfortunately, those who like to display different backgrounds on each monitor may still need to resort to third-party solutions, as that capability does not appear to be included at this time. On the other hand, users of Windows 7 have the option to select multiple images to create a background slideshow that will be displayed across both monitors.

User Access Controls

Although I am, at best, ambivalent about Windows Vista on the whole (I don’t hate the OS, but I don’t love it either), I moved to the much-maligned OS because of the UAC (User Account Controls) feature that required administrator assent before making changes to the system. I’ve always been a big proponent of the concept of least-privileged computing, and I have tried very hard to practice what I preached. I found operating in that mode difficult at best in XP, so I moved to Vista and lived with the chattiness and intrusiveness of that version of UAC—cranking UAC security up to the maximum as I needed to input administrator credentials to approve any modifications to the system.

With Windows 7, Microsoft aims to reduce some of the intrusiveness of UAC to keep people from disabling the feature altogether. To achieve this, Microsoft created the UAC settings configuration page—a slider bar that can be used to alter the amount of protection provided by the feature.

Users have four UAC settings to choose from, with two new alternatives. At one extreme, Always Notify is closest to the ON position in Vista, alerting in a protected dialog whenever the user or software attempts to modify restricted parts of the operating system. On the other end, Never Notify is equivalent to OFF in Vista—no UAC controls. In between, Windows 7 offers the Default (which only notifies in a protected dialog when software attempts to change the OS, but not the user) and a similar setting that alerts under the same conditions, but does not require the protected dialog box.

Software and Driver Support

In my brief time with Windows 7, I’ve used a simple rule of thumb when deciding what software and drivers might work with Windows 7—if it worked with Windows Vista (the 64-bit version in my case), it will probably work with the current Windows 7 beta. The closer the software gets to the kernel, the less confident I would be in that assessment, however.

For instance, I found that all the Windows Vista 64-bit drivers available on the Dell support site for the XPS 1330 worked without a hitch, save one. While the Intel chipset package would not load, I was able to successfully install the drivers for the video card, integrated audio, network connections (including Intel 802.11n drivers, Bluetooth, and a Novatel wireless WAN card), as well as the touch pad and integrated webcam.

I did once experience a Blue Screen of Death when coming out of sleep state, which seemed to be related to the Intel Wireless LAN drivers, but I have not experienced that problem a second time, despite numerous attempts to recreate it.

On the software side of things, I’ve found that a trial copy of Office 2007 Professional works very well on Windows 7. I’ve also installed common third-party software packages (Adobe Reader, Java, and Firefox) with few problems, although these applications do not offer the Jump List capabilities. Google Chrome, on the other hand, did not load successfully as the installer warned of a known incompatibility with this version of Windows.

However, I would not recommend installing applications that require low-level system access, such as anti-malware suites and applications unless they specifically advertise support for the OS. Microsoft provides links to only three beta anti-malware suites that claim support for Windows 7—from AVG, Symantec, and Kaspersky.

Graphic Cards with ATI Radeon HD4870

Now ... Graphic Cards are very important hardware in our computers today.there are company like ATI and nVidia who works hard for these graphic cards in order to give their costumer a better solution in doing their daily work,gaming,designing and so on...

Most of the people cares about graphic cards performance by looking on the G/C's memory.to them:the bigger the memory,the better the graphic card is.

GPU computing may not be a common term right now, but we’re expecting the concept to become increasingly relevant as GPU makers like nVidia and ATI move to extend the ­functionality of their powerful graphics cards.

What is GPU computing, you ask? Well, whether it’s called ATI Stream computing or nVidia Cuda (compute unified device architecture), the concept is the same — to utilise the increasingly powerful GPUs in modern graphics cards for more general computing tasks normally associated with the CPU.

In the old days, graphics ­processors were simple creatures with very specialised set of ­function.

They were designed to take some of the workload of rendering complex graphics from the CPU — and when we talk about graphics, that usually means rendering graphics in games.

Nowadays though, with games getting increasingly complex in scope, GPUs have come to a point where they are actually powerful enough to handle not just graphics but more general computing tasks.

The cool thing about GPU ­computing is that if you have a recent graphics card from nVidia or ATI, you probably already have the power of GPU computing in your PC.

The latest driver updates for nVidia cards and ATI cards turn on this feature, essentially putting a software layer to help compatible applications communicate with the GPU hardware.

Of course, a GPU isn’t going to replace CPUs like Intel’s Core 2 Quad or newer Core i7 anytime soon because they still aren’t complex enough to work as a replacement for a true processor.

But it could potentially vastly speed up tasks like video ­transcoding, image processing and video editing compared with just using the ­processor.

Right now, there aren’t that many applications that take ­advantage of the GPU for general computing tasks, but we expect that 2009 will see this technology taking on a more important role as GPU makers try to add value to their offerings.

There are actually a number of applications available now which harness the power of GPU­computing.

Skype 2.8 beta for Mac

Skype ,a out standing provides free communication to the world today.Mostly skype is used to call a person for free.Now, Skype had release their beta version for the Apple Mac OS .the good news is:

Just in time for Macworld, those ridiculously talented Estonian engineers have come out with the latest version of everyone's favorite Internet phone and video calling software the Skype 2.8 Beta.

Among other extras, this new version includes two all-new features: The first lets you use your Skype credit to pay for Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots on a minute-by-minute basis. So, forget having to fork over $10 just to send a quick message off to your loved one or business partner. Now you can do it for actual small change—just $0.19/minute.

You can also now do screen sharing with other Skype users. Of course, iChat has had this feature for awhile now, but iChat can't do cross-platform screen sharing so you can help out your Windows/Linux friends. There are some limitations at the moment, though: for example, while you can share your screen with your buddies on Windows and Linux, you can't yet see their screens. But really: who wants to look at a Windows or Linux screen when you've got your Mac in front of you?

You can download the new 2.8 beta here, so feel free to give it a spin and let us know how it works out for you.

There was no Steve Jobs or game-changing gadget at Macworld's keynote presentation Tuesday, but Apple marketing chief Philip Schiller kept things lively by introducing eye-catching software updates and a supercharged, sleek MacBook Pro.Schiller, who handles worldwide product marketing and was a last-minute stand-in for Jobs, capped off the Cupertino tech giant's final year of participation in the expo, which runs through Friday at Moscone Center in San Francisco.

With Apple exiting the Macworld stage and Jobs being treated for a hormonal imbalance, Schiller offered announcements devoid of huge surprises. Rumors of an Apple netbook or large iPod Touch weren't realized, but Schiller seemed to have a good time talking up the Mac platform and updates to the Apple family."I'm so personally excited to be the one delivering Macworld 2009 to you. I'd like to thank everybody for showing up," he said.The presentation included updates to the iLife and iWork software suites, a new 17-inch MacBook Pro with an 8-hour battery and a new digital rights management-free iTunes library with tiered pricing.

Starting at $2,799 and available in late January, the new MacBook Pro features Apple's unibody aluminum enclosure, which other models received this past summer. But the big news was the battery life for the machine, which has a 40-percent larger battery capable of up to eight hours of continuous use.Apple engineers worked with advanced chemistry, monitoring technology and power distribution to develop a battery able to last over 1,000 charges, a lifespan that is three times the industry standard, Schiller said. The laptop is a svelte .98 inches thick and 6.6 pounds; offers Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to 2.93 GHz, up to 8 GB of RAM, both discrete and integrated graphic chips from Nvidia, 320 GB of hard drive space, and an LED backlit display that has 1920 x 1200 resolution with 78 percent more pixels than its 15-inch sibling.Schiller showed off new versions of iLife '09 and iWork '09. The iLife software includes a new iPhoto program with face detection capability that allows users to organize their picture library by - you guessed it - faces. Users also can organize photos by location using geo-tagged pictures. And iPhoto includes a new slide show feature with upgraded effects that can be synced to an iPhone or iPod Touch.

IMovie, which got a major makeover last year, adds more granular touch and powerful features, addressing one complaint of the updated iMovie. Video editors can apply new effects, sync audio better and smooth out jumpy footage using a new video stabilization feature.GarageBand was upgraded with Learn to Play, an interactive musical tutorial for guitar and keyboard students. The software comes bundled with nine lessons for each instrument. To learn from big names such as Norah Jones and Sting, users can pay $5 for their instruction on one song.IWork '09 features updates to its document, spreadsheet and presentation software, giving programs with more effects, themes and now the ability to share documents online through iWork.com. IWork.com, which is free during the testing period, allows people in many locations to collaborate on shared documents, which can be pulled up from any Web browser.ITunes is finally getting a full slate of digital rights protection-free music that will come in a higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding format. About 8 million songs will be available immediately, and by the end of the quarter the remaining 2 million songs also will be available without digital rights management protections.

Also, Apple is now offering music at three price points: 69 cents, the traditional 99 cents and $1.29. Most albums will still sell for $9.99. The move satisfies one of the longer-running complaints of the music labels, which have wanted more flexibility in pricing in the iTunes Music Store. Users can upgrade their existing library of songs to DRM-free iTunes Plus for 30 cents a track or 30 percent of an album price.And iPhone users will be able to download songs from the iTunes Music Store over AT&T's 3G cellular network instead of waiting to access Wi-Fi.Analysts said the keynote presentation was a notch below previous ones, which Jobs used to introduce products like the iPhone and the MacBook Air.Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, said that Apple this year opted to tout its overall marketing message instead of introducing lots of new hardware.

"The emphasis is more on the products and the value of the software and the Mac," he said. "The platform is growing, and the keynote is a way for Apple to show the strides it's made in the industry."

Mike McGuire, a Gartner Research analyst, said Apple has outgrown Macworld and is probably happy to have more flexibility to announce products outside of the expo's schedule. Indeed, Schiller said that the Apple Stores attract 3.4 million people a week or "a hundred Macworlds a week."

"Apple is still able to get (analysts and media) out to their stand-alone product announcements, so there is no longer a need for one fixed date on the calendar," McGuire said.With Apple's departure and the decline of tech trade shows in general, the event's future is in doubt. Bajarin said there might now be an opportunity to retool the event to allow more vendors to shine."Apple had a strong say on who could be on the floor at Macworld," he said. "Apple not being there will have a big impact, but it could be an opportunity for other vendors to step up and use this show as a showcase."

BESIDES,As you're probably aware, the Macworld Expo keynote happened today (Tuesday morning), which brought us new versions of iLife and iWork. Phil Schiller's presentation also introduced an updated 17" MacBook Pro, which rounds out Apple's updated line of notebooks. Aside from those three introductions, Schiller also announced DRM-free iTunes Store tracks across the store. There were, however, some items that were expected to debut but didn't, and so I thought I'd take a quick look at what ended up not coming true. At least this time around.

Looking at all of the rumors and speculation that Jacqui rounded up before the conference, Schiller's presentation involved a fair number of things that weren't really on the radar, which could be either a good or a bad thing. The 17" MacBook Pro and iWork web collaboration functionality were both on the list, but an iLife update certainly wasn't (in fact, I can't even find a mention of an updated version of iLife on our site before the keynote). iPhone nanos, Mac netbooks, and Mac tablets were all quite absent from the presentation as well, but I don't think any of those are huge shockers to most people.

To me, the real surprise today was the lack of new iMac or Mac mini models. The buzz before the keynote included information about these possible new Macs, and it's unclear for the moment if something changed leading up to the keynote or if Apple just has other plans up its sleeve. If I may indulge in some speculation, my guess is that it's the latter. Aside from the DRM-free tracks, none of the keynote announcements were really as revolutionary as a bunch of new Macs might be. We here at Ars suspect that we'll see an Apple event hosted by Steve Jobs sometime this spring to introduce these new models.

Updated my MacBook.Mac OS 10.5.6!

Finally,on the second day i got my Mac back from school,i update my mac for 4 Hours.the internet connection was very poor,for several time disconnected. By downloading at 96Kb per second was counted fast in Malaysia.at once it reaches 99.2 Kb per second.and i capture it.
the peak download bandwidth is 120.3Kb per second
the peak upload bandwidth is 63.9Kb per second.

Happy New Year!2009...N ' goodbye 2008

02/01/2009,
just got my laptop back from a school dog!
I'm feel so safe ...
lucky no parts is destryed.
thanks.
i pray for it...
apple.-the most disliked brand!