Data Link Professionals

MSI Launches the Z77A-GD80, the first windows motherboard with thunderbolt

jparker — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:17:08 +0000

MSI, the leading innovator in mainboard and graphics card technology is happy to announce the availability of the new MSI Z77A-GD80 mainboard with Intel Thunderbolt technology. With MSI’s true integrated Thunderbolt design you don’t have to worry about losing bandwidth or placing additional add-in cards as it is the most simple Thunderbolt solution available. Of course, the renowned Military Class III components are again available to deliver the highest quality and most stable components. OC Genie II boosts your overall CPU, Memory, Disk and Graphics performance and thank to its power saving hardware features such as Active Phase Switching (APS) and DrMOS II, the MSI Z77A-GD80 can combine its CPU performance with best power saving.

Thunderbolt Technology: The Fastest Connection available
MSI equipped the Z77A-GD80 with the groundbreaking Thunderbolt technology. Thunderbolt is the fastest data connection available for your PC, running at 10 Gbps. Thunderbolt technology delivers two communications methods, or protocols, on a single cable: PCI Express for data transfer and DisplayPort for displays. MSI has integrated the Thunderbolt controller on the mainboard, ensuring that Thunderbolt is a hassle-free solution that not requires additional cards, cables and configuration issues because external Thunderbolt controllers steal bandwidth from other devices. Thunderbolt is an easy technology and should not add to your PC complexity!

Fastest Data transfers
Data transfers for backup, sharing, and editing are faster with Thunderbolt technology, significantly reducing times to complete these tasks. Running at 10 Gbps, Thunderbolt technology on the MSI Z77A-GD80 can transfer a full-length HD video in less than 30 seconds and backup 1 year of continuous audio playback in just over 10 minutes.

Cable management without clutter
Thunderbolt technology delivers great responsiveness with data and display transfers – in each direction, at the same time – using a single cable to connect devices. It’s no longer needed to connect multiple devices directly to your PC. Using multiple connection in a daisy chain, the amount of cables directly attached to your PC will be reduced while maintaining maximum throughput.

Military Class III components
The MSI Z77A-GD80 is equiped with Military Class III components. consisten of the new DrMOS II next-generation MOSFET with double thermal protection ensure safety while providing the highest efficiency and power output. Hi-c CAPs have very high efficiency and small form factor, ideal over overclocking or oversized CPU cooling. Super Ferrite Chokes (SFC) are more powerful and more efficient than Chokes employed on other mainboards and the all-solid capacitors are the backbone of any long-lifetime product.

Smoothest system experience with OC Genie II
MSI OC Genie II is world’s easiest overclocking technique and allows a complete performance overhaul with a simple push of a button. My OC Genie is a new feature that allows end-users to customize their OC Genie II experience through MSI’s unique ClickBIOS II interface.

FBI says they need a backdoor into social and public web sites

jparker — Sat, 05 May 2012 10:55:39 +0000

The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.

In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.

The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

“If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding,” an industry representative who has reviewed the FBI’s draft legislation told CNET. The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second industry representative briefed on it.

The FBI’s proposal would amend a 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, that currently applies only to telecommunications providers, not Web companies. The Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA in 2004 to apply to broadband networks.

Google announces “Drive”, a direct competitor to Dropbox

jparker — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:29:11 +0000

Google is set today to open Google Drive, a service to store files online and share them among various computing devices that turns out to be a lot more important than you might think.

Why? Two reasons:

First, Google’s service goes well beyond rivals because of integration with Google Docs, Google+, Gmail, and other services.

Second, beyond a basic free level, ordinary consumers will pay to use Google Drive — not much, but enough to make them into customers, not just users of an advertising-subsidized service. That’s a pretty big philosophical shift for Google.

What is Google Drive?

Google Drive, at its core, looks a lot like Dropbox: you install software on a device running Windows, Mac OS X, Android, and “in coming weeks,” iOS. That device gets a special Google Drive folder that synchronizes its files with a mirror stored online.

If you copy or save a new file to the folder, or if you upload one to the Google Drive site online, the technology automatically replicates it at all other Google Drive locations. On an Android tablet, though, you’ll need a network connection to actually see the files behind the file names.

“You can take all your data, regardless of which device you’re on, and make it seamlessly available to you,” said Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Google’s Chrome and Apps projects. “We want you to think of this as the center of your Google apps experience.”

It’s very useful, as Dropbox users can attest. I use Dropbox often, for example saving a PDF of my airplane boarding pass and a subway map when I’m at my computer, then pulling them up on my mobile phone when I need them even if I’m in a foreign country without my usual wireless service.

But Google outdoes Dropbox by giving you 5GB of capacity for free, 25GB for $2.49 a month, or 100GB for $4.99 a month — via Google Wallet, of course. (Or, if you’re feeling like pushing the envelope, there are other tiers including $50 a month for 1TB and $800 a month for 16TB.) Dropbox’s free tier ends at 2GB (unless you cajole your friends into joining with your referral code), then jumps to $9.99 monthly for 50GB or $19.99 monthly for 100GB.

That’s more expensive than the existing Google prices for overflow storage space at Picasa and Google Docs, which can be had for $50 a year for 200GB compared to $210 for Google Drive. That’s because Google expects much more active use, with data being sent to and from multiple devices frequently. “This is something we expect people to use with high utilization a lot,” Pichai said.

Resolution on the web: 1366×768 overtakes 1024×768 for first time

jparker — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:38:25 +0000

A major milestone in screen resolution sizes has been passed according to independent web analytics company, StatCounter. The company’s research arm, StatCounter Global Stats reports that for the first time 1366×768 has become the most popular screen resolution worldwide, having overtaken 1024×768.

“The data reflects a continuing trend of users moving to larger screen resolution sizes,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “The screen resolution size people are using is a critical factor for developers when it comes to web design, particularly in the case of fixed width web pages.”

Since StatCounter began its tracking of screen resolution in March 2009, as a free service to developers and other users, 1024×768 has been the dominant screen size globally on the web (excluding mobile*). 1024×768 has fallen from 41.8% in March 2009 to 18.6% in March 2012. Over the same period 1366×768 has grown from 0.68% to 19.28%.The third most popular size is 1280×800 at 13%.

Cullen also said that while StatCounter Global Stats provides information on worldwide and regional trends, monitoring the specific screen resolutions being used to view individual sites is also very important.

StatCounter (http://statcounter.com/) provides free website traffic analysis. This allows web developers to capture screen resolution stats on their own and on their client websites in real time. Other information available includes search terms, download stats, exit links and other data.

StatCounter Global Stats data is based on over 15 billion page views per month (4 billion from the US) to the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

View the full chart here.

Android Fragmentation is Getting Worse

jparker — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:42:33 +0000

Google updated its Android version tracker on Monday, revealing that the latest version of its mobile operating system — Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich — has more than doubled its installed base over the past month. Unfortunately, that only carries Google’s current Android build to a 2.9% share of all devices. Combined with Honeycomb, this means that as of March 2nd, just 6.2% of Android devices are now running a modern version of Android. Meanwhile, the bulk of Android devices run the 15-month-old Gingerbread operating system (63.7%) and the second most popular version of the platform is the 23-month-old Froyo OS (23.1%). First unveiled in October 2009 and currently at 6%, Android 2.1 Eclair is still found on nearly as many devices as Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich combined. Read on for more.

Whether or not fragmentation is a serious issue in the Android ecosystem remains a topic of debate. While many industry watchers continue to argue over how much fragmentation impacts developers, the direct impact on end users is clear. Despite being unveiled more than five months ago, just 2.9% of Android devices currently offer the numerous enhancements and new features introduced with Ice Cream Sandwich, such as improved speed and performance, a redesigned user interface, a simplified application switcher, hardware acceleration, Android Beam and much more.

To compound matters, Google may unveil its next major Android build some time this summer or in the third quarter, just as Ice Cream Sandwich finally begins to proliferate. Vendors are currently working feverishly to prepare Android 4.0 updates for their recent smartphones, and a new crop of flagship devices from HTC and Samsung is about to hit the market. While these new Ice Cream Sandwich-powered smartphones gain momentum, a new version of Android will hit the market with exciting new features.

If history repeats itself, owners of the HTC One X, the HTC One S and the Samsung Galaxy S III likely won’t be able to enjoy the new features introduced alongside Android 5.0 Jelly Bean until some time in the first or second quarter of 2013.

Google to Start Penalizing Overly Optimized Sites

jparker — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:15:07 +0000

This is an interesting move by Google but not completely off the rocker for them. Last year they blocked search results from the co.cc domain because they believed they polluted the search results.

Google plans to penalize overly optimized sites because they want to level the playing field for other websites who do not concentrate on such efforts. Basically there are sites out there that completely focus their efforts on SEO and not content and those results would rank higher than sites that don’t focus on SEO.

Google Engineer Matt Cutts explains the following: “We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect.”

The search engine at Google is about to go through a major overhaul and de-prioritizing sites with heavy SEO is just a small part in the big picture to bring better search results. The changes to the search engine will be coming in the next few months.

US Internet Providers to Start Invading Your Privacy on July 12

jparker — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:52:44 +0000

The country’s largest Internet service providers haven’t given up on the idea of becoming copyright cops.

Last July, Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other bandwidth providers announced that they had agreed to adopt policies designed to discourage customers from illegally downloading music, movies and software. Since then, the ISPs have been very quiet about their antipiracy measures.

But during a panel discussion before a gathering of U.S. publishers here today, Cary Sherman, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said most of the participating ISPs are on track to begin implementing the program by July 12.

Supporters say this could become the most effective antipiracy program ever. Since ISPs are the Internet’s gatekeepers, the theory is that network providers are in the best position to fight illegal file sharing. CNET broke the news last June that the RIAA and counterparts at the trade group for the big film studios, had managed to get the deal through–with the help of the White House.

Sherman told attendees of the Association of American Publishers’ annual meeting, that planners had always said that setting up an antipiracy program like this could take a year. He told CNET following his panel that the process isn’t as easy as turning on a switch.

“Each ISP has to develop their infrastructure for automating the system,” Sherman said. They need this “for establishing the database so they can keep track of repeat infringers, so they know that this is the first notice or the third notice. Every ISP has to do it differently depending on the architecture of its particular network. Some are nearing completion and others are a little further from completion.”

The program, commonly referred to as “graduated response,” requires that ISPs send out one or two educational notices to those customers who are accused of downloading copyrighted content illegally. If the customer doesn’t stop, the ISP is then asked to send out “confirmation notices” asking that they confirm they have received notice.

At that time, the accused customers will also be informed of the risks they incur if they don’t stop pirating material. If the customer is flagged for pirating again, the ISP can then ratchet up the pressure. Participating ISPs can choose from a list of penalties, or what the RIAA calls “mitigation measures,” which include throttling down the customer’s connection speed and suspending Web access until the subscriber agrees to stop pirating.

The ISPs can waive the mitigation measure if they choose and not one of the service providers has agreed to permanently terminate service.

The partnership with the major bandwidth providers was years in the making and the deal pumped lots of confidence into the entertainment sector. After the White House and state and federal lawmakers showed support for the deal, leaders at the RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) believed they had the momentum to get anti-piracy legislation passed in Congress.

They were wrong of course. The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act were run off the rails mostly by the tech sector. It will be interesting to see how the tech sector reacts once accused Internet pirates begin having their Web access suspended.

Apple investing $300 million in Austin, Tx

jparker — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:18:30 +0000

The State of Texas today announced that Apple has committed to spend $304 million to expand its operations in Austin, seeking to add over 3,600 employees to its workforce in the state. The new campus will more than double the size of Apple’s workforce in Texas over the next decade, supporting the company’s growing operations in the Americas with expanded customer support, sales and accounting functions for the region. In exchange for Apple’s commitment to create these new jobs in Texas, the state has offered Apple an investment of $21 million over ten years through the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF).

While Apple’s Austin campus focuses primarily on customer support and other administrative functions, it does also house some engineering functions primarily related to chip design. Samsung’s chip factory where it produces Apple’s A-series chips for its iOS devices is also located in Austin and recently underwent a major expansion itself to support Apple’s products.

The City of Austin has also proposed an $8.6 million grant investment in the project should Apple meet certain performance metrics presumably tied to campus development and hiring. Apple is required to invest $56.5 million in new facilities and equipment by the end of 2015, with an additional $226 million investment coming by the end of 2021. Apple has also committed to retaining its existing 3,100 jobs in Austin and adding at least 3,635 new jobs, with yearly hiring targets for each of the ten years following the opening of its Phase I expansion.

Apple announces the New iPad

jparker — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:43:16 +0000

Apple today introduced the new iPad, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, featuring a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G connects to fast networks worldwide, including AT&T’s and Verizon’s 4G LTE networks, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life while remaining amazingly thin and light. Beginning today, iPad 2 will be offered at an even more affordable price starting at just $399.

“The new iPad redefines the category Apple created less than two years ago, delivering the most amazing experience people have ever had with technology,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The new iPad now has the highest resolution display ever seen on a mobile device with 3.1 million pixels, delivering razor sharp text and unbelievable detail in photos and videos.”

The new iPad’s Retina display delivers four times the number of pixels of iPad 2, so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when held at a normal distance, making web pages, text, images and video look incredibly sharp and realistic. The 3.1 million pixels in the Retina display are more than one million more pixels than an HD TV, and with 44 percent increased color saturation the new iPad displays colors that are unbelievably richer, deeper and more vivid. Movies are now capable of playing at full 1080p HD-resolution, delivering an incomparable viewing experience on a mobile device.

The powerful new A5X chip with quad-core graphics was specifically designed by Apple to deliver a fast, responsive user experience while supporting the incredible Retina display. With double the graphics performance of the A5 chip, the A5X provides a superb balance between performance and power efficiency so users can enjoy all the benefits of the stunning new display while experiencing a smooth Multi-Touch™ interface, immersive gameplay, incredible visual depth and all-day battery life that iPad is known for delivering.

The 5 megapixel iSight camera features advanced optics for taking stunning pictures and recording full HD video. Backside illumination allows you to take great photos in low-light conditions and a new video image stabilization feature removes the bumps and shakes typically seen when filming with a hand-held device. Images can be enjoyed on the large Retina display, then edited, enhanced and easily shared with friends and family using the built-in Photos app on iPad.

iPad Wi-Fi + 4G with built-in next generation 4G LTE has the most comprehensive support for fast networks worldwide including HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA, and now both CDMA and GSM iPad users have the ability to easily roam internationally. The world-ready iPad delivers blazing download and upload speeds so web pages load incredibly quickly and email with large attachments can be sent and received easily. Personal Hotspot can be used to share the fast network connection on your iPad with up to 5 other devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB.

With iOS 5.1, the latest update to the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, the new iPad has a number of new features and enhancements including: a redesigned Camera app with video stabilization technology; the ability to delete photos from Photo Stream; support for dictation in English, French, German and Japanese; and Personal Hotspot. iOS 5.1 also works seamlessly with iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services including iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream and Documents in the Cloud, that works seamlessly with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content and push it to your devices. When content changes on one of your devices, your other devices are updated automatically.

The new iPad also supports dictation, another amazing way to get things done just using your voice. Instead of typing, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard, then say what you want to say and the new iPad listens. Tap done, and iPad converts your words into text. You can use dictation to write messages, take notes, search the web and more. Dictation also works with third-party apps, so you can update your Facebook status, tweet, or write Instagram captions.

Apple also introduced the iPhoto app, along with major updates to iMovie and GarageBand, completing its suite of iLife apps for iOS. iLife and the iWork apps, Pages, Keynote and Numbers, have all been updated to take advantage of the new iPad Retina display. iPhoto includes breakthrough Multi-Touch features so you can use simple gestures to sort through hundreds of photos and find your best shots, enhance and retouch your images using fingertip brushes and share stunning photo journals with iCloud. iMovie now gives you the ability to create amazing Hollywood-style trailers as you record HD video, and GarageBand introduces Jam Session, an innovative and fun new feature that allows a group of friends to wirelessly connect to play instruments and record music together live on their iOS devices.

iPad runs almost all of the over 585,000 apps available on the App Store™, including more than 200,000 native iPad apps, from a wide range of categories, including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. The iTunes Store puts the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store at your fingertips with a catalog of over 20 million songs, over 90,000 TV episodes and over 15,000 movies. The new iBooks 2 app for iPad lets users experience an entirely new kind of ebook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks created with Apple’s new iBooks Author offer gorgeous, fullscreen ebooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more.

Pricing & Availability
The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white on Friday, March 16 for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model and $699 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G for either AT&T or Verizon will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPad will also be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands on Friday, March 16. Customers can begin pre-ordering their new iPad today, and the incredible iPad 2 is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.

iOS 5.1 and iTunes 10.6 are available today as free software updates. iPhoto, iMovie 1.3 and GarageBand 1.2 are available today for $4.99 (US) each from the App Store (www.itunes.com/appstore). Keynote 1.6, Pages 1.6 and Numbers 1.6 are available today for $9.99 (US) each from the App Store. Updates are available for free to existing customers. By the end of March iPad will be available in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

The convergence of technology in the automotive world

jparker — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:09:59 +0000

In yet another example of the convergence of technology in the automotive world, Mercedes Benz unveiled plans on Monday to use Siri, Apple’s virtual personal assistant exclusive to the iPhone 4S, to power its A-class electronics system called “Drive Kit Plus,” which will essentially let drivers access their iPhone apps while driving using voice commands.

“Drive Kit Plus” works alongside Digital Drivestyle, which is Mercedes-Benz’s app that can translate the iPhone screen onto the in-car system screen. With Siri, drivers will have a hands-free solution to listen to music, change channels on the radio, send texts, or make calls. “Drive Kit Plus” also comes preinstalled with a number of social networks, so drivers will even be able to update their Twitter accounts, post messages to Facebook, and change stations on Aupeo Personal Radio.

One of the best features of “Drive Kit Plus” will be hands-free navigation. Mercedes-Benz plans to integrate Siri into the Garmin GPS system, so drivers can get directions and find routes without stopping their car to input the destination. Instead, navigating the roads will all be accomplished with simple voice commands.

Mercedes-Benz is the first carmaker to integrate Apple’s technology directly into the vehicle’s in-car system. It also marks the first time that Apple has allowed Siri to command other electronics systems outside the iPhone 4S.

The Siri-powered feature will debut at the 82nd International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, from March 8-18.

Mercedes-Benz ultimately picked Siri to power “Drive Kit Plus” because, simply put, no other voice-activated assistant is anywhere as powerful as Siri. The technology, which helps users call, text, e-mail, schedule meetings, surf the Web and find answers to complicated context-sensitive questions, was born out of a $150 million project from DARPA and SRI Ventures, the largest artificial intelligence project in U.S. history to date. The unique feature has driven sales of the iPhone 4S to make the new smartphone one of the most successful product launches in the company’s history.

Thankfully, Apple is looking for other areas to implement its incredibly powerful voice platform, besides its own products. Using Siri in a car makes the most sense, since drivers are now penalized if they are caught texting or calling while driving. With Siri, drivers don’t have to adjust their natural language in order to get directions, send texts and call friends — three activities that often get drivers in trouble with the law.

There are still a number of ways Siri could improve to benefits the user. The first key would be to expand Siri’s dictionary, as she can often struggle at times with acronyms, common foreign language words used in English, and when there’s excessive background noise. Siri also mistakes obvious commands; for example, if you tell Siri to call you an ambulance, Siri will reply, “OK. From now on, I will call you ‘An Ambulance.’ Is this correct?” In the time it takes you to cancel and start over, you may have died. This is one crucial detail that is preventing Siri from replacing OnStar.

Siri may not show up in most cars — after all, Apple wants to all of its features and tools tightly integrated with one another, not licensed out to others. Nevertheless, Apple’s partnership with this particular luxury carmaker is smart, and one that the late Steve Jobs, who owned and admired his own silver Mercedes, would have surely enjoyed.