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Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday introduced its first consumer-oriented multi-touch tablet PC. The TouchSmart tx2 tightly integrates hardware and software to offer an interface that lets people use their fingers or a stylus for on-screen manipulation of digital entertainment. The software foundation of the tx2’s multi-touch capabilities is HP’s MediaSmart 2.0, which makes it possible to use a variety of gestures, including swipes, pinches, double-taps, and finger rotations, to manipulate content in a way that’s similar to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. In addition, HP has entered into a partnership with MTV Networks to bring video in from MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. The content is organized and automatically updated in MediaSmart.

The tx2 has a standard keyboard and a 12.1-inch screen that can be placed upright for use like a typical notebook. In addition, the screen, which has a resolution of 1,200 by 800 pixels, swivels and can be laid flat. Besides the multi-touch capabilities, the system’s stylus can be used to write or draw on the screen. The PC weighs 4.5 pounds and is available with either an Athlon X2 or Turion X2 dual-core processor from Advanced Micro Devices. The system is also available with an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics processor, up to 8 GB of memory and a 500 GB hard drive. Other features include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless technology, an integrated camera and a DVD burner. The tx2 is available for pre-order from HP and is scheduled to start shipping at the end of the month. Pricing starts at $1,149.

Source: InfoWeek

With fewer consumers than hoped for signing up for all-you-can-eat music subscriptions, Microsoft and the record industry are trying to make the option more appealing. As of Wednesday, those who pay for the $14.95 a month Zune Pass subscription will start being able to permanently keep 10 tracks a month. The subscription already allows unlimited music downloads, but users have the ability to listen to the music only so long as they are subscribers.

Under the new plan, Zune Pass members will essentially get $10 worth of music to own each month, along with whatever subscription content they download. The move comes as much of the consumer enthusiasm in the digital music industry has been for music that is sold free of DRM (digital rights management) protections. Both Microsoft and music industry executives acknowledge that the uptake for subscriptions has not been what they’d hoped. For the record industry, subscription music represents an important potential revenue stream at a time where traditional music sales have continued to decline far faster than digital downloads have grown.

Source: Cnet

Google Inc. has opened an online photo gallery that will feature millions of images from Life magazine’s archives that have never been seen by the public before. The new service, available at images.google.com/hosted/life, debuted Tuesday with about 2 million photos. Eventually, Google plans to scan all 10 million photos from Life’s library so they can be viewed on any computer with an Internet connection. About 97 percent of Life’s archives have not been publicly seen, according to Life.

The photos can be printed out for free as long as they aren’t being used as part of an attempt to make money. Time Warner Inc., Life’s parent company, hopes to make money by selling high-resolution, framed prints. The orders will be processed through Qoop.com. Life’s archives include photos from the Civil War as well as some of the most memorable moments from the 20th century, including the Zapruder film capturing John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Go check it.

Source: AP

Microsoft Corp. said it will offer free software to protect PCs from viruses, in a move that could pose new challenges for independent makers of security software. The Redmond, Wash., company said it plans to introduce its security software, code-named Morro, during the second half of next year in an effort to persuade more users to secure their PCs against spyware, viruses and other forms of “malware.” Use of antimalware software is far from universal, especially in emerging markets.

There are two primary reasons consumers supply for not protecting their PCs, including a concern that the anti-malware software will bog down their PCs, said Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management for the online services and Windows division at Microsoft. The other reason is the cost of security software, which can run $75 for the programs plus two years of updates. Morro will replace another security software program Windows Live OneCare, a broader suite of software and services. Microsoft will discontinue retail sales of that software, which costs consumers $49.95 a year, on June 30 of next year. The shift to a free security offering from Microsoft could be a problem for Symantec Corp., McAfee Inc. and other independent security companies that charge consumers for their products.

Source: WSJ

A new CPU from Intel is big news around the PC enthusiast realm. Intel has introduced its latest Core i7 CPU that promises to deliver vastly superior performance compared to the previous generation of Intel processors. According to Intel, the Core i7 parts deliver 40% more performance in processing intensive applications compared to the previous generation of processors. The CPU features Turbo Boost Technology that accelerates performance to match a computer user’s needs and the workload of the system at the time.

The on-die power control unit uses power gate transistors to automatically adjust the clock speed of one or more of the cores inside the CPU depending on the needs of the system. The technology also allows sleep states that are normally common only on notebook systems. Available processors include the Core i7-965 Extreme Edition runs at 3.20 GHz at $999 and the i7-940 running 2.93 GHz for $562 and the i7-920 at 2.66 GHz for $284.

Source: SlipperyBrick

Flash is around the corner for Google’s G1 and Nokia’s Symbian smart phones; Flash on Blackberries likely coming as well; Apple continues its apathy towards Adobe. The best selling phone in America, Apple’s iPhone, could be the last of the smartphones to get Flash.  At a slew of press events over the last few days, Adobe unveiled a new version of mobile version of Flash — a leaner, faster, smart phone-aimed version of Flash 10.  The new version is optimized for ARM processors like the one used in the iPhone. Any smartphone with a 200 MHz or better processor and 16 MB of RAM should be able to run the new version of Flash, opening many phones up to the software.  A “completely capable [Web] browser” is also required, implying support of typical standards.

Google’s G1 and future Android smartphones will likely soon be getting the update, either over the air or in Google’s store, although no official release date has been announced.  Flash was demoed fully working on a T-Mobile G1 phone, though. It seems like Flash and the iPhone would be a logical fit, but Apple doesn’t think so.  Adobe has tried to woo Apple first with ARM-support upgrades and now with even more ARM-processor optimization.  The iPhone’s processor clearly can support Flash, and can support it well, but Apple remains obstinate in its refusal to adopt the technology.

Source: DailyTech

Revenue for the video-game industry in October, the first month of the critical fourth quarter that includes the holiday shopping season, grew by 18%, despite a significant decline in sales of portable players, a market research firm said. Sales increased to $2.2 billion for the month, keeping the industry on track to top $22 billion for the year, the NPD Group said. The 18% rise over October 2007, however, was less than the year-to-year increase of 26% in September. Despite the October growth, NPD said sales were “mixed” in the month.

“The console portion of the market made significant gains at 26% across hardware, software, and accessories, while the portable side of the market stalled, declining 14%,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement released late Thursday. “Year-to-date the portable segment of the market is still up 7%.” On the hardware side, the greater supply of Nintendo Wii paid off with the console recording its best sales month since last November and December. Price reductions on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 resulted in a 7% increase in unit sales over September.

Source: InfoWeek

Microsoft is expanding its Windows Live online services over the next several weeks, including adding social networking features that will make the portal for consumers more Facebook-like, such as new photo-sharing capabilities and links to other Web sites like Twitter and LinkedIn.The move may bring Windows Live into closer competition with Facebook — ironic, given that Microsoft invested $240 million in the popular online service last year. Microsoft said Windows Live has more than 460 million users. With the enhanced Windows Live, users will be able to add third-party sites like LinkedIn, Flickr, Photobucket and Twitter to their profiles through a new “What’s New” feed.

Microsoft is also upgrading the messaging and e-mail services in Windows Live. Windows Live Messenger will offer more personalization capabilities, drag-and-drop photo sharing, a favorites list for the most important contacts, group IM for chatting with up to 20 people simultaneously, and updates from contacts through the What’s New feed. Windows Live Hotmail, which has 375 million active customers, will be faster and offer spam filtering that is 80 percent more effective, according to Microsoft. The system will allow users to bring multiple e-mail accounts together and put multiple e-mail addresses onto one device. The amount of online data storage provided by the service is being increased from 5 gigabytes to 25 gigabytes.

Source: CRN

Google is finally catching up to competitors Microsoft and Yahoo for once. It is rolling out a new application for the iPhone that allows users to conduct searches with their voice rather than typing. Nice of Google to catch on to the voice-activated search craze. Microsoft and Yahoo have offered voice-enable search for some time. Microsoft through its TellMe service and Yahoo through its oneSearch service. Both work pretty well at converting speech into text and delivering relevant results. This is a feature that Google’s services have lacked for too long.

First to get Google’s version of voice search is the iPhone. The New York Times reports that the application will be available through the iPhone Apps Store as early as today, though that is not confirmed by Google or Apple. The Times notes that, “The Google system is far from perfect, and it can return queries that appear as gibberish. Google executives declined to estimate how often the service gets it right, but they said they believed it was easily accurate enough to be useful to people who wanted to avoid tapping out their queries on the iPhone’s touch-screen keyboard.” The application will be free for iPhone users.

Source: InfoWeek

The closure of a web hosting firm that is believed to have had spam gangs as clients has led to a drastic reduction in junk mail. Two US internet service providers have pulled the plug on the firm McColo following an investigation by the Washington Post newspaper. Anti-spam firm Ironport has seen junk mail levels drop by 70% since McColo was taken offline on 11 November. But, it warned, it will be a temporary respite from the menace of spam.

“It is an unprecedented drop but will be a temporary outage as the networks move from North America to places where there is less scrutiny,” said Jason Steer, a spokesman for Ironport. The Washington Post has been gathering data on McColo for the past four months and passed the information to its internet service providers, Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric. Both decided to pull the plug on the firm on Tuesday. It is believed that it hosted gangs running botnets - networks of computers that have been taken over by criminals to send malicious software and spam. According to MessageLabs, botnets are responsible for over 90% of spam.

Source: BBC