Kingston Announces TCG Opal 1.0 Compliant SSDNow KC300

Kingston has announced KC300 SSD which is Opal 1.0 compliant.

Kingston has announced an Opal 1.0 compliant SSD which comes in the form of its KC300 SSD. This new version of the KC300 SSD, built to support the Opal 1.0 specification, is particularly interesting for enterprise applications, as its new features allow it to self-encrypt, as well as perform other built-in security functions.
"As SSDs become more common in businesses and organizations, many of our enterprise customers are now looking into managing these drives in the workforce," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "We are proud to offer a version of our top-selling KC300 SSD with the ability to be managed by the most popular endpoint software applications to give companies flexibility and peace of mind to keep work data secure."
It has support for applications such as WinMagic, SecureDoc, McAfee Endpoint Encryption, and Wave Embassy.
The unit will be available through select channels and comes with capacities ranging from 60 GB to 480 GB.

Rumor: Modern UI May be Optional in Future Windows Phone

Users may be able to switch off the tiled interface.

The latest Windows Phone rumor claims that Windows Phone 9 will launch sometime during the second half of 2014. The news arrives by way of Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin who previously made several accurate predictions on the mobile industry. He now claims that the Modern UI seen on current phones and tablets will be optional starting with Windows Phone 9.
"Windows phone 9 (2014 3-4q) have another UI. That's not tales. I repeat - Microsoft change UI from Metro style," he tweets. When asked if the same applies to Windows 8.x, he says that "they aren't decided yet as far as I know. A lot of internal debates."
Other noted tweets rehash what we already know from prior reports: Windows RT and Windows Phone will become one operating system by Spring 2015, and that Microsoft plans to lift the licensing fees for Windows on tablets and smartphones to combat Android. Eventually, Microsoft will have one platform for x86, one for ARM-based chips, and the OS installed on the Xbox One.
After all the fuss about the new Modern UI interface on PC, tablets and smartphones, it seems unlikely that Microsoft will completely ditch the interface with Windows 9. The idea of making the interface optional sounds like a good way to gain new customers who would have otherwise shunned the tile-based interface. But what would the "desktop" interface look like? Something like Android or iPhone?

The time frame provided by Murtazin doesn't click with other reports about Microsoft's road map. Windows Phone 8.1 isn't set to go live until Spring 2014, followed by Windows Phone 8.2 "Threshold" in Spring 2015. Small updates for all form factors will supposedly take place in Fall 2014.
Of course, everything seen here is mere rumor and speculation... for now.

MSI Releases Radeon R9 270X Gaming 4G Graphics Card

MSI has revealed its new Radeon R9-270X Gaming 4G graphics card. This graphics card features a custom design, and being from MSI, this means that it features the TwinFrozr IV cooler. Also, this specific model features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory rather than the standard 2 GB specification.
The card's GPU is clocked at a base frequency of 1030 MHz, while it can boost up to 1120 MHz. The card is also built using MSI's Military Class 4 components which include solid state capacitors to give the card a longer lifetime and better temperature resistance.
Display outputs include dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort, and the card draws its power from a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors.
The card should arrive in stores soon.

Dell EqualLogic Refreshes Lineup for First Time in Two Years

Through all the change at Dell, EqualLogic has remained a rock of consistency and retains a loyal installed base.
After Dell bought Compellent and its progressive virtualized storage lineup for $960 million in December 2010, it didn't take long for it to take the smaller company's Fluid Data marketing scheme corporatewide, effectively making Compellent its lead storage brand.

Some folks at Dell's EqualLogic storage division might have taken umbrage at this, but if they did, they were quiet about it. Three years earlier, Dell had acquired the equally ahead-of-the-curve EqualLogic for $1.4 billion, with EqualLogic becoming the favorite child over Dell's previous co-branded storage with EMC.

Therein lies the story of IT: constant evolution.

From all that eWEEK has heard, both of those very different storage providers are thriving under Dell ownership. Both are gaining slowly but surely in market share; both serve different types of customers. EqualLogic is aimed at data centers that use iSCSI storage connectivity, while Compellent supplies storage for a variety of connections and for both hard disk and solid-state drives.

Compellent, thanks to its intelligent tiering and versatility in both hard-disk drive and solid-state media, is now the rising star in the midrange storage sector, challenging everybody—NetApp, HP 3PAR, EMC—in the market and coming away with wins.

Evidence of this came out Oct. 8 in a market survey issued by Deni Connor and James Bagley for Storage Strategies NOW, which indicates that Dell is now the No. 1 vendor of choice among enterprise storage buyers for deploying flash/SSDs. In the survey of 550 global companies, the results show that 32 percent of respondents currently use or have definitive plans to deploy flash/SSD technologies, and that Dell is first on their list to check out. This is 6 percentage points or more higher than storage market leaders EMC, NetApp, HP and IBM.

Through all this change, however, EqualLogic has remained a rock of consistency. There are a lot of older data centers in midrange-size companies that use iSCSI and don't need to change anything. EqualLogic fills that need, and thus has built a loyal installed base.

With this as background, the news here is that Dell has refreshed its EqualLogic lineup for the first time in two years; part of that news is NAND flash options are available for the first time. EqualLogic also will be able to run Compellent's Fluid File System for the first time, so mixing Dell storage products in a data center won't pose any problems.

The company also has updated its network switches and refreshed its data center management system. All of this was announced Dec. 10 at Dell World in Austin, Texas.

Here is a list of new features in EqualLogic's lineup:

--EqualLogic PS6210 Series arrays: With six models, including all-flash, hybrid and all-HDD options, the new arrays offer increased throughput, up to three times higher performance and four times the memory of prior generations with a faster, more powerful storage controller, Dell marketing executive Bob Fine told eWEEK. The scale-out architecture enables organizations to minimize I/O bottlenecks and address growing workloads with flash-enabled SANs that can achieve more than 1.2 million IOPS with less than 2-millisecond latency, Fine said.

--EqualLogic Array Software 7.0: This has new policy-based access controls and an improved user interface, available, like all EqualLogic software, at no additional charge for customers with active support contracts. There is a new 64-bit software version for new arrays that works seamlessly with a 32-bit version for older arrays.

--Dell EqualLogic SAN Headquarters 3.0: Dell's SAN monitoring software provides in-depth reporting and analysis and robust performance and event monitoring across multiple EqualLogic groups. The new release includes Array Software 7.0 features support and Dell SupportAssist enhancements.

--Dell Fluid File System (FluidFS) v3 on EqualLogic FS7610/7600: Dell's latest file system software decreases the capacity needed to store common enterprise file data by up to 48 percent by deduplicating and compressing redundant data when no longer needed. FluidFS v3 offers expanded protocol support and more third-party certifications, growing the ecosystem of industry-specific supported solutions, including leading health care picture archiving and communications system (PACS) vendors.

All the new Dell storage arrays and software are available this month, Fine said.

Building Secure Cloud Apps: CSA, SAFECode Provide Guidance

New guidance aims to enable developers and cloud implementaters to build secure deployments, but don't expect any secret tips on how to avoid government snooping.
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is partnering with the Software Assurance Forum for Excellence in Code (SAFECode) in an effort to improve the security of cloud applications. The two groups have published a 27-page document on Practices for Secure Development of Cloud Applications, which outlines the approach for what needs to be done.

As more organizations move to the cloud, there is a need to provide guidance for software development in the cloud, John Howie, chief operating officer of the CSA, told eWEEK.

Said Tabet, senior technologist at EMC and one of the paper's co-authors, told eWEEK that a key goal of the guidance is to address threat and design issues in software development that are a risk to the cloud. The joint report identifies four key threats to cloud computing: data breaches, data leakage, insecure interfaces/APIs and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

From a design perspective, which is where the document provides a lot of guidance, topics include multitenancy, trusted compute pools, the tokenization of sensitive data, data encryption, and authentication and identity management.

A goal of the guidance, according to Tabet, is to provide content for how security controls should be designed and implemented in the cloud. Among the key challenges is the simple fact that threats keep changing.

"You're seeing software deployed today that in a very short time is becoming vulnerable to attack, not because the software was written poorly but because the operations and threat landscape has evolved," the CSA's Howie said. "We expect to continue to invest in this effort with iterations of the document and supplemental guidance."

One thing the CSA/SAFECode guidance is not designed to do is help cloud providers and developers circumvent potential snooping from a government agency. Throughout 2013, there has been a lot of talk about snooping from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as a result of leaks made public by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

"We believe the focus should be on illegal access to content by cyber-criminals, terrorists and nation-states engaged in cyber-espionage," Howie said. "On the face of it, regardless of your political affiliation or personal beliefs, the activities conducted not just in the U.S., but by governments worldwide, are legal, until the courts or legislatures change the laws."

This week, a group of tech vendors in the United States, including AOL, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Yahoo, published an open letter in an attempt to start a national conversation on the topic of U.S.-government surveillance reform. The tech vendors are looking for more oversight and transparency.

"Our focus has always been on illegal and illicit access, and the best practices in this report reflect that," Howie said.

iPad grabs top spot in tablet purchase poll

Apple's iPad was the preferred pick of prospective tablet buyers this holiday season by a huge margin, according to a market research firm's survey of 25,000 Americans.

ChangeWave Research, an arm of 451 Research, said last week that 13% of those polled planned on buying a tablet in the next 90 days, more than twice the number of its previous survey in August, and in the ballpark of the polls before the last two year-end holiday stretches.

"Apple continues to hold a tight grip on next 90-day tablet demand," said ChangeWave in a short description of some of the survey's results.

Seventy-two percent of the people who said they would buy a tablet in the next three months claimed that they would choose an Apple device, representing about 9% of the 25,000 who responded to the survey.

ChangeWave attributed the dramatic increase in iPad planned purchases to the late-October introduction of the iPad Air and Retina-equipped iPad Mini. The unveilings, along with the $30 price reduction of the first-generation iPad Mini, dampened consumer enthusiasm for other tablets, including those from Amazon, Google and Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy line, for example, dropped from 13% in August to 9% in the November-conducted poll, while Google's Nexus fell from 12% to 9%.

Only Microsoft's Surface brand gained planned-purchase share, climbing from 7% to 8%. "[That's] a hopeful sign for [Microsoft's] October Surface 2 tablet launch," said ChangeWave.

Microsoft introduced its second-generation Surface tablets in late September and started selling them Oct. 22. The company also kept the first-generation Surface RT, renamed as simply "Surface," at the marked-down $349 price it had used since July, when it began to unload excess inventory.

ChangeWave's survey also showed that of Apple's tablets, the iPad Air was the one most likely to be bought, with 55% of those selecting an Apple tablet saying that they would purchase the new Air. That matches other metrics that have called out the Air as Apple's top seller since early November.

Dell joins forces with Dropbox to boost hosted storage for enterprises

Dropbox is getting help from Dell to persuade enterprises to pick its hosted storage and file-sharing platform, and also to make it more secure.
Take advantage of enterprises' growing interest in and acceptance for personal cloud-based storage services, vendors like Dropbox have been partnering with large telecom operators and software vendors.
On Thursday, Dell announced that its global sales team will from now on sell the business edition of Dropbox. The news follows an announcement from Box, which focuses on SMBs and large enterprises, that it partnered with Australian operator Telstra and British mobile operator EE last week. Dropbox and Box are still new names for CIOs and working with larger partners gives them both a stamp of approval as well as a larger sales force.
Dell is combining Dropbox for Business with the Cloud Edition of its Data Protection suite to let employees use hosted storage at work while at the same time providing IT departments with more control.
The Cloud Edition was announced in March, and offers features such as encryption, usage monitoring and the ability to create white lists of email addresses that users are allowed to use for file sharing. In addition to Dropbox, it is also compatible with Box and Microsoft's Skydrive.
This year, Dropbox has worked to improve its enterprise product. The company announced last month a new version that comes with the ability to better separate work-related and personal files and also allows administrators to remotely delete folders.

Wireless carriers agree to offer phone unlocking

The top five U.S. mobile operators have agreed to let their customers unlock their devices and move to another provider under pressure from  Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular  signed on to an agreement that allows customers to unlock their mobile phones and other devices once they have fulfilled their contracts with their original carrier, the mobile trade group CTIA announced Thursday.
The agreement is a voluntary commitment by carriers to respond to unlocking requests promptly, unlock their phones when eligible and notify subscribers about eligibility. It also includes a commitment to unlocking devices belonging to military personnel when they are deployed for service.
Most mobile devices sold in the U.S. are locked to a particular carrier's network and can't be used on other networks unless they are unlocked, a software change that may be carried out either in person or remotely. Unlocking gives device owners more freedom to choose among mobile operators for the best prices on service. Critics have accused carriers of making it difficult for their subscribers to unlock their phones even when eligible.
Activists, lawmakers and the FCC have leaned on carriers to allow unlocking and inform consumers about it. Last month, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler threatened to legally regulate unlocking if the mobile industry didn't agree to a set of principles for making it easier. In a letter to CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent, Wheeler said the FCC and CTIA had been in talks about unlocking for eight months. Wheeler sought action before the December holiday season.
For regular monthly subscribers, carriers agreed to unlock devices upon request after the customer has fulfilled their contract or financing plan or paid an early termination fee. For prepaid customers, they will unlock devices no later than one year after the first activation. The carriers also agreed to clearly disclose their unlocking policies and give timely notice when subscribers are eligible for unlocking. They also committed to responding to unlocking requests within two business days.
The carriers agreed to implement three of the standards within three months and implement the whole commitment within a year. The CTIA didn't specify which three should be implemented first.
The five operators that agreed to the principles include the four major national carriers and the next largest provider that isn't being absorbed by a major carrier. Leap Wireless, which has been an independent prepaid carrier, is in the process of being acquired by AT&T. The CTIA recommended that the standards be incorporated into the CTIA Consumer Code for Wireless Service, under which the organization annually certifies mobile operators.
Consumer rights group Public Knowledge applauded the agreement but said it shouldn't take a year to carry out.
"This agreement provides customers of the largest carriers the definite ability to unlock their phones and move them to competing carriers. Crucially, it also has strong requirements that carriers give clear and useful notice to consumers of their rights when they can unlock," Vice President of Legal Affairs Sherwin Siy wrote in a statement. "However, it shouldn't take nearly a year, or the intervention of the FCC, to achieve a partial solution to this problem. With more sensible laws in place, the Commission wouldn't have to take steps like these to cajole the carriers into a common-sense solution."

Microsoft times BUILD dev conference to fall outside Apple's shadow

Microsoft will return to San Francisco in April to reprise its BUILD developers conference, the company announced today.
BUILD 2014 will run April 2-4, and again take place in the Moscone Center, the facility Microsoft used last June and the same one Apple has planted its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) for 11 years running.
Registration for BUILD 2014 will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 9 a.m. PT on the conference's website.
Microsoft has not posted an agenda, but in a blog post Friday, Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft's chief evangelist in the company's developer and platform group, said: "We'll talk about what's next for Windows, Windows Phone, Windows Azure, Windows Server, Visual Studio and much more."
Speculation has swirled that Microsoft will launch an update for Windows Phone 8 and push out tweaks to Windows 8.1 around the timetable for BUILD. Microsoft is also expected to introduce a smaller-screen Surface tablet in 2014, perhaps at the conference.
Assuming analysts have scoped out the company's CEO selection timing correctly, BUILD could also be the first forum for a new chief executive to step on stage, address developers and provide his or her take on the company's strategies.
The scheduling move from June, when Microsoft held BUILD this year, gets the conference out of the shadow of WWDC, the annual Apple event that garners massive attention from bloggers and grabs mainstream media headlines because the Cupertino, Calif. company usually introduces new operating systems and some hardware on WWDC's first day.
In 2013, WWDC took place at the Moscone Center two weeks before BUILD.
Prices for BUILD remained flat at $2,095, the same as for 2013's conference. Microsoft did not say, however, whether it would offer a $500 discount for the first 500 who register, as it has done in the past.
Developers should expect that BUILD will sell out -- this year's version did in about 24 hours -- and plan to register when Microsoft opens its virtual ticket office early on Jan. 14.

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Review: One Flexible Ultrabook

Whether in notebook, stand, tent, or tablet mode, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is definitely a head-turner. But does this Ultrabook's innovative multi-mode design effectively juggle its multiple personalities in an equally-harmonious, Zen-like manner?

With Windows 8 slowly  picking up momentum, the constantly-evolving touchscreen-enabled hybrid Ultrabook/tablet is also becoming more commonplace. In the race to discover the perfect form factor, PC manufacturers need to think more aggressively outside the proverbial box to earn your business. The IdeaPad Yoga 13 is a prime example of Lenovo’s approach to this unique market.
Labeled as the world’s first multi-mode Ultrabook, the IdeaPad Yoga 13 appears to be ready for virtually any Windows 8 mobility scenario the casual user, student, or professional can throw at it.
The Yoga 13 is capable of assuming any of four different orientations, or "operational modes": Laptop, Stand, Tent, and Tablet.

Laptop Mode

This traditional mode resembles any other clamshell-style Ultrabook or laptop PC. As with all typical laptops, the keyboard and touchpad serve as the primary input in this configuration. However, having the added benefit of a touchscreen provides the Yoga 13 with a welcomed third input option. Obviously, Laptop Mode is useful for basically any task that you would use a notebook for, such as office productivity, photo editing, light gaming, email, and Web browsing, just to name a few.

Stand Mode

In Stand Mode, the screen is capable of being rotated well past 180 degrees. The exposed keyboard and touchpad faces the same surface that the system rests on, so the touchscreen becomes your only input. This mode is particularly suited for viewing video content because, unlike the Yoga 13's next mode, Stand Mode allows you to adjust the tilt of the screen to find that perfect viewing angle. Likewise, this orientation is also great for teleconferencing, since tilting the screen also adjusts what's captured by the embedded HD webcam.

System Builder Marathon, Q2 2013: $650 Gaming PC

System Builder Marathon, Q2 2013: The Articles

Here are links to each of the four articles in this quarter’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon.
To enter the giveaway, please fill out this SurveyGizmo form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!
Day 1: The $650 Mini-ITX Gaming PC
Day 2: The $1300 Mini-ITX Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $2500 Mini-Performance PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Day 5: The $400 "True Spirit of Mini-ITX" PC

Introduction

At the very heart of our System Builder Marathon series, the embers of competition glow hotly. Each builder has an obligation to squeeze the most performance possible from his budget, or else be prepared to defend his alternate path.
But staff and readers alike also hold our builds to various other standards. Thomas' high-end rig undergoes the most scrutiny. It's expected to not only perform exceptionally well, but to also look and feel the part. Don’s enthusiast-oriented PC gets away with more sacrifices, and its lower price might even justify somewhat flat performance right out of the box. However, it still has to be tweaking-friendly and put up big numbers when it gets overclocked. As for my budget-oriented build, I try to earn that gaming PC moniker first and foremost, rather than trying to compete across the productivity-oriented apps that push my less expensive hardware around.
Last quarter, we upped the stakes in our first System Builder Marathon of 2013, by pursuing the most performance possible from three tightly-grouped budgets: $600, $800, and $1000. In essence, we were looking to identify the sweet spot where bang-for-the-buck value is maximized. Surprisingly, the early favorite and reigning champion, Don's mid-priced enthusiast PC, wound up in last place overall, despite winning the hearts of gamers with an unlocked Core i5-3570K processor and powerful Tahiti LE-based Radeon HD 7870 graphics card. On the other hand, my $600 gaming PC successfully captured the overall gold medal once I overclocked it.
But keeping the mainstream Radeon HD 7850 graphics card from the previous two $500 efforts was a disappointment to many, who expected a more generous $600 budget to pack more graphics muscle.

Convinced that a Core i5-3350P a Radeon HD 7850 was a winning combo for overall value, this round I justified shifting funds from the CPU to graphics to see how much better a more focused $600 machine might game. At the same time, we'd also figure out how much performance we'd lose in threaded content creation and productivity apps.

Thoughts of pairing AMD’s FX-6300 with the biggest and baddest GPU I could afford ended when the crew started talking about mini-ITX configurations. As a personal fan of small form factor systems, I was immediately on-board. But I also expressed my concern about the premiums on small parts, along with a desire to make optical drives optional. Some of the most attractive cases, such as Fractal Design's Node 304, don't even include an external drive bay, while many smaller enclosures require a pricier slim drive.
As I waited for the team's input, I priced out a mini-ITX gaming box with a Core i3-3220 and the least-expensive 7-series motherboard, GeForce GTX 660, and 4 GB kit I could find. I would have loved to go even smaller, but I just couldn't deny that Cooler Master's $40 Elite 120 chassis met our value expectations best, while allowing enough left over for a 430 W modular power supply. The build rounded up to exactly $600, shedding the optical drive many folks consider optional anyway.

The talks evolved, though, and in the end we settled on $650, $1300, and $2600 as our final budgets. With an extra $50 burning a hole in my pocket, I was torn between conflicting interests. How would we judge what makes the best mini-ITX gaming box? Should I stay true to the roots of our SBM and augment performance, or build something a little more in tune with what I'd personally want to own? The ultimate small form factor box would either be hidden or attractive enough for my family room. Of course I'd still want it to deliver a solid 1920x1080 gaming experience. I could now shrink down to a SilverStone Sugo SG05 with its 450 W SFX power supply, and use the leftover budget to double my system memory. Or, some folks might add back the optical drive. But I knew that neither route would bolster performance.

Gigabyte Reveals GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC, Has 4GB VRAM

Gigabyte has launched its GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Gigabyte has announced a new version of its GeForce GTX 770 card, this one packing a meatier cooler and more memory. The GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC is a card that is built using a custom PCB, carrying the WindForce 3X cooler, having higher factory clock speeds, and a couple of extra gigabytes of graphics memory.

The card's WindForce 3X cooler is built with six copper heat pipes, some big aluminum fin stacks, and three 80 mm fans. This cooler can generate up to 450 W of cooling power. Of course, with such cooling power the manufacturer cannot get away with giving us a card with factory clocks. As such, the card is clocked at 1137 MHz base and 1189 MHz boost speeds. This makes the boost clock over 100 MHz higher than the reference specification.

Gigabyte's GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC also carries 4 GB of GDDR5 memory that runs over a 256-bit memory bus at an effective speed of 7.0 GHz.
The card should already be available through retail channels for an MSRP of around $499.99.

MSI GeForce GTX 760 Packaging Mistakenly Pictured

Oops, it appears that someone had forgotten to check the model numbers of the boxes retrieved from their shelves, and accidentally included the packaging of the GTX 760 with a roundup of GTX 780 cards.

While little is known about the GTX 760 currently, it appears that someone from PC Games Hardware has mistakenly taken a picture of the packaging of the GTX 760 card and published it. The reason we say that it was accidental is because it was included in a roundup of three GTX 780 cards, and it seems that someone may have accidentally swapped the MSI GTX 780 packaging for that of MSI's GTX 760. From the packaging, we can see that the card will carry the TwinFrozr cooler, and will be themed as part of the Gaming series of PC components, meaning that it will be black and red. The box also indicates that the card will be factory overclocked.

An earlier report did shed some light onto the GTX 760's specifications, though their likeliness remains questionable. According to these specifications, the GTX 760 would not be very different from the GTX 660 Ti, featuring higher clock speeds and a wide memory interface. More details here.
Reports indicate that the GTX 760 is expected to launch this week still with an MSRP of $299.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 doubles download speeds on LTE-Advanced network

Samsung plans to begin selling a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone capable of supporting LTE-Advanced 4G networks -- which offer download speeds that are twice as fast as LTE -- in South Korea this month.
No U.S. wireless carrier is implementing LTE-Advanced yet, though all four major carriers have expressed interest in the technology or have described plans to offer the faster speeds as early as later this year.
The four major U.S. carriers (Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA) are provisioning or have recently provisioned LTE (Long Term Evolution) network switching gear and antennas nationwide that generally provide average downlink speeds of 10Mbps.

None of the four major U.S. carriers responded Monday to a request for information on their plans for LTE-Advanced networks.

Samsung is working with Qualcomm on LTE-Advanced chips for the GS4, said JK Shin, co-chief executive of Samsung Electronics, in an interview with Reuters in South Korea.
Shin told Reuters, in a story posted early today, that Samsung is talking to carriers outside of South Korea to sell the LTE-Advanced GS4. He refused to disclose the carriers Samsung is talking to.
He also claimed that Samsung will be the first manufacturer to sell a commercial version of an LTE-Advanced smartphone.

Shen told Reuters that a three-minute download of a movie using current LTE technology would take just over a minute on an LTE-Advanced network.
He did add that a Galaxy S4 that supports LTE-Advanced will be slightly more expensive than the LTE version.
Shin claimed sales of the GS4 "remain strong," and have been thus far stronger than the GS III. The smartphone became available in April. He appeared to be reacting to analyst forecasts that demand for the Galaxy S4 is lagging.

After those analyst forecasts appeared earlier this month, shares of Samsung stock quickly dived by 6% and the company's market value has dropped by nearly $20 billion since June 7.
The addition of LTE-Advanced to the GS4 is another example of how phone makers must constantly improve hardware and software to keep customers interested in a smartphone market that has become saturated.

LTE-Advanced has been on the minds of smartphone chip makers for months.
Nvidia, for instance, downloaded 150Mbps in a prototype LTE-Advanced smartphone running over a Tegra 4i chip at the May CTIA trade show in Las Vegas. Broadcom in February showed off a BCM21892 modem that supports LTE-Advanced and ST-Ericsson is developing an LTE-Advanced chip.
According to the 3GPP, a standards body, the top theoretical downlink data rate from LTE-Advanced networks is 3Gbps, while the uplink is 1.5Gbps. For LTE, the theoretical down and up rates are 300Mbps and 170Mbps, respectively. However, the speeds are much lower for practical uses.
A 20,000-mile road test of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless networks by PC Magazine found an average downlink speed of 15.24Mbps over AT&T's LTE network in Atlanta, and 11.27Mbps over the Verizon network in Los Angeles.

NSA can access data without court approval, leaker says

Analysts at the U.S. National Security Agency can gain access to the content of U.S. targets' phone calls and email messages without court orders, NSA leaker Edward Snowden said, contradicting denials from U.S. government sources.

U.S. surveillance agencies have weak policy protections in place to protect U.S. residents, but "policy is a one-way ratchet that only loosens," Snowden, the former NSA contractor, said in a chat on The Guardian's website Monday.

The technology filter designed to protect U.S. communications is "constantly out of date, is set at what is euphemistically referred to as the 'widest allowable aperture,' and can be stripped out at any time," Snowden wrote in the chat. "Even with the filter, US comms get ingested, and even more so as soon as they leave the border."

If an analyst at the NSA, CIA or other U.S. intelligence agency has access to the databases of collected communications records, "they can enter and get results for anything they want," Snowden added. "Phone number, email, user id, cell phone handset id, and so on - it's all the same. The restrictions against this are policy based, not technically based, and can change at any time."
Earlier this month, The Guardian and The Washington Post published information leaked from Snowden about the NSA and other U.S. surveillance. Snowden leaked a document showing a court order allowing the NSA and Federal Bureau of Investigation to collect phone records from Verizon customers, and he alleged that NSA analysts can gain access to phone calls and email messages without court approval.
Snowden's comments came after U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, suggested that lawmakers were told in a classified briefing last week that officials with the NSA and FBI believe they don't need court-ordered warrants to listen to phone calls and read emails.
Nadler, in a hearing last Thursday, asked FBI director Robert Mueller if the agencies need a warrant to listen to phone calls.

"You have to get a special, particularized order from the FISA court directed at that particular phone and that particular individual," Mueller said.
NSA director Keith Alexander also said the agency needs warrants to access the contents of phone calls and email messages when questioned in another hearing last week.
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence Public also disputed Snowden's assertions of warrantless wiretapping and Nadler's understanding of the classified briefing to lawmakers.
"The statement that a single analyst can eavesdrop on domestic communications without proper legal authorization is incorrect and was not briefed to Congress," the ODNI said in a statement.
Nadler, in a statement released after the Thursday hearing, said the Obama administration had assured him that the "NSA cannot listen to the content of Americans' phone calls without a specific warrant."

Oracle's Q4 results: What to expect

Many eyes in the tech world will fall on Oracle later this week, when the vendor's fourth-quarter results are set for release. This is typically the biggest reporting period for Oracle each year in terms of revenue, but a number of questions loom beyond its top-line performance.
Here's a look at some of the topics Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and other executives may discuss or be asked to address during Thursday's conference call on the results.

New software purchases versus maintenance: Oracle has consistently made sure to highlight its strong software maintenance revenue, which existing customers pay each year for support and updates. Maintenance fees carry extremely high profit margins for Oracle and other software vendors.
But another key metric to watch is new software license revenue. Growth in this area says customers are broadening their investments in Oracle software, whether by adding licenses for their existing implementation or trying out newer products.

Oracle has begun reporting new software licenses sales in tandem with cloud software subscription services as it moves further into the SaaS (software as a service) market. Last quarter, revenue in the combined category fell 2 percent, which along with a 1 percent drop in overall revenue led to some shaky nerves on Wall Street.
This time around things should be different, analyst firm Canaccord Genuity said in a report issued Monday. "Our research indicates that aggregate software demand improved sequentially from [the third quarter]," the report states. "However, there are treacherous pockets of weakness. We expect Oracle to navigate those challenges and post at least a consensus quarter."

Hardware ho-hum?: A less likely outcome of Thursday's results is a sudden turnaround in Oracle's hardware revenue, which have fallen consistently since the acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Oracle has maintained it is focused on higher-margin systems like Exadata, rather than commodity servers. During its third-quarter earnings call, CFO Safra Catz said customers had also been waiting for new Sparc-based systems to be released, and Ellison himself told analysts not to expect a turnaround until the first quarter of Oracle's fiscal 2014.

Fusion Applications update: One thing is for sure: Nobody can accuse Oracle of over-hyping the success of its next-generation Fusion Applications. To the contrary, its public remarks on uptake of Fusion have suggested industry watchers should manage their expectations, as installed-base customers of older applications adopt modules incrementally, particularly in SaaS form.
Oracle has said there are more than 400 Fusion customers, but many observers will be looking for an updated figure, as well as some color regarding how many have gone live, compared to ones in mid-implementation, and which types of modules they are choosing.

How Apple shook up the electronic book market

IDG News Service - Apple didn't try to fix or raise the prices of electronic books when it entered into the market in 2010, according to Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue. Rather, he says, the company was only working to ensure a profit for itself.

"We're not willing to lose money in any business," Cue told the court, referring to Amazon's practice of 2009 to sell electronic books for less than what it paid for them.
But in doing so, the U.S. Justice Department contends, Apple violated antitrust laws by colluding with the five largest book publishers -- HarperCollins, the Penguin Group, the Hatchett Group, MacMillan, and Simon & Schuster -- to fix the prices of electronic books. As a result of their actions, the prices of electronic books rose in 2010, the DOJ contended.
While the five publishers have since settled with the DOJ out of court, Apple is defending its practices in a DOJ antitrust trial now under way at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District Court of New York, with District Judge Denise Cote presiding.
In its arguments, the DOJ portrayed Cue as the mastermind of the operation, the one who coordinated the actions of the publisher CEOs while keeping Apple's then-CEO, Steve Jobs, informed of the progress he was making. Last week, Cue took the stand to explain the reasoning that led Apple and the publishers to set up an entirely new pricing model for electronic books, called the agency model.
The agency model works differently from the wholesale model that publishers have been using for centuries. In the wholesale model, the book publisher sells the books to the retailer, and then the retailer can resell the book at whatever price it sees fit, usually at a profit. In the agency model, such as the one Apple uses for its App Store, the manufacturer sets the retail price and the retailer gets a certain percentage of the sale. In Apple's case, it would take 30 percent of whatever publishers intended to charge.
Does the DOJ have a case against Apple? While a move to the agency model may be legal, the work of coordinating competitors in a single market to agree on prices is not, said Keith Hylton, a professor at the Boston University School of Law. The complexity in this case is that the two issues are confounded, he said.
Agency pricing is similar to another mechanism, "resale price maintenance," in which the manufacturer sets the prices of its goods, Hylton said. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007, in a case concerning the pricing of leather apparel, that resale price maintenance was legal unless the practice was shown to be harmful to consumers.
The agency model, on its own, "doesn't even raise an antitrust issue, because the seller never owns the book," Hylton said.

But while a manufacturer and reseller can work together to determine a price, multiple manufacturers cannot collude together to set prices. The plaintiff, in this case the DOJ, has to make a compelling case that this conspiracy actually took place, Hylton said.
When questioned by DOJ attorney Lawrence Buterman, Cue said he was unaware that publishers were discussing the proposed Apple deals among themselves. He had been unaware, he said, that the CEOs of the largest book publishers had been holding talks among themselves for at least a year prior to meeting with Cue.
What the publishing CEOs were discussing was the issue of how Amazon was selling electronic books for its Kindle book reader, which they called the "$9.99 problem." According to the DOJ, the publishers were frustrated that Amazon was selling their best-selling titles at US$9.99 each, which was, in many cases, less than what Amazon was paying for those electronic books.
The publishing companies feared that if Amazon continued to offer bestsellers at such a reduced rate, the public would come to assume that would be the natural price for a book. They also worried that Amazon was moving to disintermediate publishers, or to cut them out of the publishing cycle and deal directly with authors.
Enter Apple. In December 2009, Apple was preparing to launch its iPad, which Cue thought would make for a terrific electronic book reader. It was Cue's idea for Apple to enter the market for electronic books. Apple CEO Steve Jobs thought the format wouldn't work for either the iPhone or Mac laptops or desktop computers. But the iPad would make a fine reader for electronic books, offering features such as enhanced color and video, Cue thought. Cue felt personally close to Jobs; he had worked closely with him for about 16 years and was aware Jobs was dying. (Jobs died in 2011.) The project to set up the iBookstore "had extra meaning to me," he told the court.A
Cue had to work fast, though. Jobs was planning to introduce the iPad to the world in little more than a month, on Jan. 27, 2010. Cue would need to have preliminary agreements from all the major publishers in place by then for Jobs to include iBookstore in his presentation.A
According to Cue's testimony, he initially approached publishers individually in December 2009 about reselling their books in a typical wholesale model.A In Cue's first meeting with a publisher, with HarperCollins, an executive floated the idea of working with Apple under an agency model. Cue took the idea back to Jobs, who approved the basic concept. The company was already using that model for both its App Store and its iTunes music and video service. So over the next few weeks, Cue and his team worked up an agency plan, one that guaranteed Apple a 30 percent cut of each sale.A
Cue proposed different pricing tiers that publishers had to adhere to.A Electronic versions of best-selling hardcover books, for example, could be sold at $12.99 or $14.99. At the publishers' insistence, he added $16.99 and $19.99 as well. The contracts also prohibited the publishers from "windowing," or delaying the electronic release of popular books on Apple's store. "If you run a store, you can't have windowing at all," Cue explained before the court. "Even though some prices would go up, in exchange, [there would be] no more windowing."
Cue quickly realized that, in order for the agency model to work, the same deal must be struck with all electronic book vendors, lest Apple's prices be undercut by other retailers. The problem, Cue recalled Apple's legal counsel telling him, was that Apple couldn't force publishers to change their contracts with other retailers.
Instead, Cue introduced what he called a "Most Favored Nation" clause, in which the book publishers would guarantee that they would offer their books to Apple at 30 percent less than any other e-book retailer's price. In this way, Cue explained, publishers would not have to sign over the rest of their clients to the agency selling model. "In a legal agreement, I couldn't force Amazon and Barnes & Noble to move to the agency model," he said. The DOJ has maintained that the MFN clause in effect forced book sellers to move to an agency model.
With the public launch of the iPad coming up on Jan. 27, Cue rushed to get all the publishers to sign contracts by a week before then. Book publisher Hatchett signed an agency-model deal on Jan. 24, and the other four publishers signed similar deals within the following two days. In the following months, the publishers struck agency deals with other electronic book retailers. The Apple contract took effect on April 3, and the prices of the best sellers quickly rose to the top $16.99 tier in the weeks after. (As part of their 2011 settlements with the DOJ, the book publishers ended all their agency-model contracts).
In antitrust cases, "Once there is a proof of conspiracy, it is up to the defendant to prove that the consumer wasn't harmed," Hylton said. In this case, the DOJ focused its questioning on the increase in book prices right after the new agreements were in place.
When Buterman asked if he knew book prices would jump after the agreement, Cue refused to acknowledge that electronic book prices increased overall. He replied that while some book prices increased, the prices for other books would be priced more "flexibly," and still other books were introduced to the market that previously weren't available in electronic form, thanks to Apple's insistence on not windowing or withholding book releases.
"I expected higher prices for some books, but [there would be] flexibility for other books," Cue said. He also noted that not all the prices for electronic books increased. Most of the price increases were for new, best-selling books.
"Do you recall customers calling to thank you for raising [electronic book] prices?" Buterman asked.
"They thanked me for opening an iBookstore," Cue responded.
During questioning by Apple's own attorney, Orin Snyder, Cue maintained that Apple did not have a set expectation for how much electronic books should cost. "$9.99 might be the right price, but we didn't know what the right price was," he said. Rather, Apple left it to the publishers to set the prices, requiring only 30 percent of the final price in order to keep its own business profitable. After expenses of delivering product and maintaining an electronic commerce store, Apple would reap a net profit in the "high single percentages," Cue said.
"Volume, not price, drives Apple's profits," Cue said.
In its case, the DOJ contends that Apple coordinated the activities of the five publishers, informing them that each of their contracts would be similar, and keeping each of the publishers abreast of what the other publishers were thinking. To this end, DOJ says it has plenty of electronic evidence, between emails and phone calls, that publishers were conferring with each other on the issue. For example, Jobs, in one email, stated that Apple could help publishers solve "the Amazon problem."
Another key part of the evidence was a quote from Steve Jobs, made right after the iPad launch. When asked by The Wall Street Journal why someone would pay $14.99 for a book on an iPad when they could get the same book for $9.99 from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, Jobs replied "that won't be the case ... the prices will be the same." For the DOJ, this quote was evidence that Apple knew it was asking all the publishers to raise prices for their books across the board.
The DOJ, however, still has to back its argument by showing very clearly that collusion took place. "If you want to prove conspiracy, you better bring very strong evidence. It can't be stuff that people can confer by just connecting the dots," Hylton said. Apple, meanwhile, is charging that the DOJ is taking these electronic documents out of context.
Cue, when questioned by Buterman, denied that he or Apple spoke with any of the publishers about what the other publishers were doing. He also repeatedly denied that he pitched publishers with the idea that Apple could incite a change in the structure of the entire electronic book market. He said he did not know who came up with the idea of all publishers going to an agency model at the same time. "My concern was to remain competitive," he said.
Concluding arguments from both sides are expected later this week.

McAfee Internet Security 2013 Review: Proficient antimalware, super-quick installation

McAfee Internet Security 2013 ($40 for one year of protection on up to 3
computers, as of 12/19/12) didn’t manage top marks in our security suite tests,
but it’s still a fairly proficient antimalware program that will keep you relatively
well-protected. This security suite, which boasts a simple user interface and
a super quick installation process, scans your system quickly and efficiently.
However, McAfee’s uninspired design and average performance makes it a less
attractive choice compared to its competition.
In our real-world attack test, McAfee was able to completely block 94.4 percent
of attacks. Unfortunately, this means that it did let through 5.6 percent of
attacks, allowing our test system to get infected. This test indicates how well a
product will be able to block brand new malware attacks as it encounters them
in the wild—and of the nine security suites we tested, only two let such a large
percentage through.
That said, McAfee was competent at cleaning up malware infections once they
were already on the system. In our system cleanup test, the program detected
and disabled 100 percent of infections, and fully cleaned up 70 percent of
infections. Five of the nine security suites we tested performed better than
McAfee in this test, completely cleaning up at least 80 percent of infections.
McAfee had an excellent false positive percentage: It didn't flag a single safe file
(out of over 250,000 files) as malicious. It also did a very good job at detecting
known baddies: in our malware “zoo” detection test, it managed to detect 99.9
percent of known malware samples.
McAfee adds just a little extra weight to your system, performance-wise. In our
PC speed tests, the program added a little less than one second to startup time,
and about four seconds to shutdown time. McAfee’s scan times are slightly
higher than average: It takes one minute and 35 seconds to complete an on-
demand (manual) scan, and five minutes for an on-access scan (the automatic
scan that happens when you open or save a file to a disk). In both cases, that's
about average for the suites we tested.
Installing McAfee Internet Security 2013 is a breeze. There are just three screens
to click through, the program doesn’t try to install any extras (such as toolbars) or
change any of your settings (such as your default browser search), and it doesn't
require a restart is required.
McAfee’s user interface, though uninspired, is simple and easy to understand. It’s
not very attractive (the main window is gray with green and blue accents), but it
does have a large banner at the top that shows your protection status, along with
four small modules so you can quickly access important security areas. These
areas include virus and spyware protection, Web and email protection, updates,
and your subscription information. There are also three smaller modules that let
you quickly access McAfee’s other services, including data protection tools, PC
home and network tools, and parental controls.
On the right side of the main window are links to navigation and help. The
navigation section is where you’ll find the main settings, as well as information
about each of the suite’s features. You can also click the modules on the main
window to access settings for individual features. The settings menus are a
little difficult to navigate, but McAfee does offer up simple explanations for each
area, as well as a “Learn more” link that takes you to the a relevant online help
document.
McAfee offers decent protection and a user-friendly interface, but overall it’s
just average—nothing about it is too impressive, but it’s also not terrible. Its
protection, performance, and documentation are mediocre, while its user
interface is bland and uninspiring (though easy to navigate and understand). It’s
not a bad program, but there are better security suites out there.

AMD slates first ARM server chip, 'Seattle,' for 2014

AMD plans to sample its first ARM-based processors for servers early next year, alongside paired CPUs and integrated graphics cores in an attempt to oust Intel's Xeon from its dominance in the server market.
Specifically, AMD's ARM core will be code-named "Seattle," and will ship in volume during the second half of 2014, AMD executives said. In 2014, AMD will also ship "Berlin," a core available in both a CPU form factor as well as an APU, which integrates the processor with an integrated graphics coprocessor. Finally, there's the "Warsaw," which will compete with in high-performance computing (HPC) applications with the Xeon.
Seattle is of interest to both AMD and to other industry watchers because it represents one of the more interesting opportunities for AMD to regain share in the server market. Last year, AMD said last year that it had agreed to license ARM 64-bit technology, and would combine it with its Freedom Fabric, the name given to its high-speed networking technology it acquired via SeaMicro.
Intel sells more than 80 percent of all microprocessors by unit volume, but in servers it's a virtual dictatorship; during the fourth quarter of 2012, Mercury Research estimated that Intel sold about 95.7 percent of all server microprocessors sold. To compete, AMD needs something different, and it's hoping ARM represents that edge.

The hope for ARM

ARM is the processor architecture that powers the vast majority of the world's smartphones, where low power is a priority. That hasn't been the case inside the server space until the last few years, when system administrators realized that the majority of cost in operating a server comes from the power it takes to operate it. The problem, however, is that the low-power ARM architecture still runs using a 32-bit instruction set, rather than the 64-bit instructions demanded by server makers.
ARM announced its ARMv8 64-bit architecture in 2011, and has worked to build an ecosystem of software and hardware since then. Eventually, hardware licensees like Applied Micro and others, including AMD, will manufacture ARM-based CPUs. Then server makers will build out their own products, putting ARM-based servers on the market possibly late next year. Those "microservers" will be used for hosting, static workloads like serving Web pages, cloud gaming, and other functions.

Microservers like HP's "Moonshot" will prove to be good homes for AMD processors, it hopes.

"This isn't someone questioning if ARM is really a viable technology," said Michael Detwiler, a product marketing manager with AMD. "ARM is going to be a player in the server market."
Detwiler said that AMD admits that other companies have more experience building phones and other clients around the ARM architecture. With its SeaMicro technology, however, which can work with a variety of processor architectures including ARM and X86, Detwiler said he expects no other provider will be able to surround the ARM Cortex-A57 core, the heart of "Seattle," with the type of enterprise logic that AMD will provide.
AMD promises that the Seattle chip will run at greater than 2GHz, and have between two and four times the performance for the Opteron X-series, also known as the "Kyoto" cores, which AMD will also ship in the same timeframe for the microserver market. Each Seattle chip will contain 8 cores with 128MB of DRAM support, followed by a 16-core version. Dedicated encryption and compression blocks will also be included, Detwiler said, along with 10-Gbit Ethernet for networking.

Dell Latitude 6430u offers high quality throughout

Whatever happens to Dell in the near future, let’s hope that the company keeps making notebooks as nice as the Latitude 6430u. In a world of cheap-feeling merchandise, it stands apart. It’s sedately handsome, ruggedized, remarkably stable in your hand and on the table, and a tactile joy to use. It’s also fast and available with a wide variety of warranty and support options, as a good corporate computer should be.
Why on earth would anyone start a review by talking about a laptop’s physical stability and feel? Partly because it’s better than talking about the 6430u’s 4-pound bulk, but also because there’s palpable pleasure in handling a well-balanced unit sporting a silky, soft-to-the-touch feel. The unusually uniform weight distribution comes courtesy of the flat battery pack that occupies the lower front quarter of the unit. That balance makes the unit feel lighter than it actually is.

The 6430u’s heft also makes it a very stable typing platform, which accentuates the already nice feel of the Chiclet-style keyboard. The keyboard response is a little lighter than a Lenovo’s, but combined with the solidity of the 6430u, the overall experience might actually be a wee bit better—high praise in my book. The keyboard is backlit, and you can control the lighting intensity via a function-key combination. The unit’s touchpad has silky-smooth response, and buttons on the top and bottom reduce hand travel when clicks are required. Even the eraserhead pointing device is well adjusted. Someone at Dell obviously spent considerable time designing the ergonomics.

Our test configuration of the 6430u sported an Intel Core i5-3427u processor, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a 128GB Samsung PM830 solid-state drive, which helped the unit earn a very capable score of 78 on PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 test suite. The integrated Intel HD 4000 GPU’s game play is mediocre but doable at 800 by 600 or so. There’s no discrete-GPU option, but this is a business machine first and foremost.
The 6430u’s startup time is a mere 10 seconds, and battery life is a very nice 6 hours, 18 minutes. That’s enough to get you coast to coast, at least with the jet stream at your back. Our test unit shipped with Windows 8. Given that the Latitude is sold primarily as a business-fleet model, a Start Menu replacement, such as IObit’s free Start Menu 8 or Stardock’s $5 Start8, might be welcome. All the flavors of the more business-friendly Windows 7 are available as well.

One might quibble with a pricey laptop whose 14-inch display tops out at a 1366-by-768-pixel resolution. (A 1600 by 900 option is available for an additional $52.) But unless you’re adamant about having 1080p video, the display looks great. No touchscreen model is available, but that could be a good thing when you consider the impression that a fingerprint-filled screen would make in the meeting room.
The 6430u’s port array is a nice blend of legacy and modern ports. The unit’s left side sports VGA output, a USB 3.0 port, a Wi-Fi switch, the headset jack, and the power cord jack. The right side is home to a powered USB 3.0 port, the gigabit ethernet port, and a Kensington lock port for securing the unit. Another benefit of positioning the battery at the lower front is that Dell could center ports on the back of the unit, including a combo eSATA/USB 3.0 port and an HDMI output. Our test unit came with both dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Broadband (including LTE) and WiGig (60GHz) cards are available as well.

The unit we tested costs $1279 (as of March 27, 2013). Besides the already mentioned options, you can provision the 6430u with faster or slower CPUs, more memory, a larger hard drive, a smart-card reader, and the modular external USB drive enclosure that in our model came fitted with a DVD drive. Pricing starts at around $900 for an entry-level model and rises to a little under $2100 for a fully loaded system. A three-year warranty is standard, but you can opt for a 4- or 5-year option, as well as onsite service.
I rarely get this enthusiastic over a corporate product of any sort, but I’m a sucker for products that are tactilely and ergonomically superior. The Latitude 6430u is expensive, but most truly superb things are. Even consumers should seriously consider this ultrabook, since the entry-level configuration is more than adequate for most purposes, and the three-year warranty makes a big-box store’s extended warranty unnecessary.
Editor's note: This review was corrected for a factual error. All the USB ports on the Latitude 6430u are USB 3.0. PCWorld regrets the error.

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y500 offers excellent gaming specs for the price

At first glance, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 doesn’t look like anything special.
This thick, heavy (6.2-pound), 15.6-inch laptop is encased in a plain, sturdy chassis with a brushed-aluminum cover. It’s sleek-looking, though strangely prone to fingerprints. Lenovo’s logo is subtly appliquéd in the upper left corner, and the edges of the corner taper ever so slightly.

Beneath this mild-mannered design lies a surprisingly good gaming machine

Nothing would indicate that this is actually a rather powerful—and surprisingly affordable—gaming-oriented machine with a third-generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and not one but two Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics cards under the hood. (The second graphics card is wedged into the laptop’s “Ultrabay,” which is Lenovo’s term for the swappable drive bay that replaces the DVD drive.)
Of course, our review model, in all its spec’d out glory—it’s also got a 1TB hard drive, a 16GB SSD boot drive, a glossy full HD display, and a full-sized backlit keyboard with a 10-key numberpad—starts at around $1150. That’s a bit pricier than the $800 base model of the Y500, but it’s still a great price for a gaming laptop.

It's also a surprisingly affordable gaming machine

Performance-wise, this build of the Y500 is very good, though it can’t quite hold its own with the more intense gaming models. It received a score of 70 (out of 100) on our WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, which puts it well above most mainstream laptops, but still below behemoths like the $3785 Origin EON17-SLX (which scored 115 out of 100). Still, this is one of the better laptops we’ve tested, and its graphics performance is comparable to that of the EON17-SLX. In our Dirt Showdown graphics test, the Y500 managed 116.1 frames per second (fps), while the EON17-SLX managed 139.5 fps.
In other words: If you’re a gamer, this is a viable, and much more affordable, alternative to an Origin desktop replacement.

Red-rimmed keys are so dazzling, they're a bit hard to navigate

The Y500 looks good, too, and offers sturdily-built, comfortable components. The full-sized keyboard has chiclet-style, red-rimmed keys set against a shiny black background. The keyboard is extremely comfortable to type on, with great tactile feedback and nice, evenly-spaced keys. The red backlight gives it a pop of color, though I have one minor complaint, as a gamer: The keys are so evenly-spaced (and the numberpad is right next to the keyboard) that a multi-color backlight would be helpful. It’s hard to distinguish where keys are, quickly, with an all-red keyboard.
The Y500’s touchpad is large and easy to use, but nobody really cares. This is a gaming machine, which means you’re most likely going to use an external mouse. The touchpad was a tad jumpy and oversensitive, in my opinion, but it can be disabled with a quick function keystroke.

Great-looking display, but no touch?

The Y500’s screen is one of its biggest assets, even though when you tap it—and you will, this is Windows 8, after all—you’ll discover that it’s not a touchscreen. The screen itself looks great: It’s big, bright, and crisp, colors look accurate, and off-axis viewing angles are pretty good. It’s got a full HD resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, and high-motion content looks excellent in playback. But it’s still…not a touchscreen. Of course, this isn’t quite as big of a deal because it’s a gaming machine—touchscreens aren’t really the gamer’s instrument of choice. But since it does have Windows 8, it’s a bit frustrating to realize that you can’t take advantage of all the awesome swipe gestures that Windows 8 has to offer. That said, it’s important to remember that even the uber-pricey Origin EON17-SLX doesn’t have a touchscreen either.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 is a great choice as a gaming laptop that’s lighter and cheaper than your typical desktop-replacement monstrosity. Despite a few minor drawbacks, overall it’s a great machine that offers excellent performance and specs for the price.

Asus VivoBook S550CA offers Windows 8 and touchscreen in mainstream package

Attractive, touchscreen-equipped laptops running a full version of Windows 8 are getting cheaper than you might think. Some newly announced Sony touchscreen-equipped laptops start around $600 for 14-inch and 15-inch models. But for just a little more money, Asus’ 15.6-inch VivoBook S550CA has an MSRP of $750—and you can find our review model online for as low as $630.

Touchscreen laptop with Windows 8 costs less than a high-end iPad

That’s right—the VivoBook S550CA costs just as much as a souped-up 16GB iPad, but it’s also got a full-size keyboard, an optical drive, and the touchscreen. If you’re looking for a deal, this is a pretty good one.
The VivoBook S550CA is the largest of Asus’ low-cost VivoBook line. It’s 0.86 inches thick, and it weighs 5.7 pounds. Asus calls it an Ultrabook, but, as we’ve already determined, Asus seems to be bandying that term about recklessly. The VivoBook S550CA isn’t even technically an Ultrabook—while it does have a 24GB SSD boot drive (alongside a 500GB hard drive), and it does start up in just under 15 seconds, the S550CA is 0.04 inches too thick to be an Ultrabook. Intel’s guidelines do state, after all, that Ultrabooks with screens larger than 14 inches have to be under 0.82 inches thick.

Plentiful features in fairly compact profile

That said, the S550CA cuts a slim profile for a 15.6-inch machine. Our review model is housed in a black and silver chassis, with brushed-aluminum detailing on the cover and wrist-rest and cheaper matte plastic on the bottom. The black cover is unfortunately prone to fingerprints, which sort of messes with the sleekness of the look.
Despite being just 0.86 inches thick, the S550CA does have a tray-loading optical drive—a Super-Multi DVD drive, to be exact—located on its right side. That may seem quaint, but many mainstream laptops still include it. It’s also got a couple of USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, HDMI and VGA outs, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Connectivity is good (there’s also built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0), but it would be nice to see two or three USB 3.0 ports, instead of just one. However, the full-sized HDMI out is a nice touch.
The S550CA’s input devices are a mixed bag. The touchscreen is very good—it’s responsive, accurate, and easy to use. The only minor issue I have is that the touch sensitivity doesn’t extend past the bezel of the screen (and it’s an edge-to-edge glass screen, so this could easily have been implemented), and that makes certain Windows 8 gestures, such as swiping from the right side of the screen, more difficult than necessary. Many of the higher-end laptops I’ve seen do extend the touch sensitivity just past the edge of the screen, which makes for a much smoother Windows 8 experience. However, it is an otherwise excellent touchscreen for the price, so I can’t complain too much.

Disappointingly shallow keyboard and touchpad

The laptop’s other input devices aren’t quite as impressive. The full-sized keyboard has black, island-style keys and a 10-key number pad. The keys are lightly textured and evenly spaced, but the keyboard is shallow—so shallow, in fact, that it’s almost impossible to type quickly and accurately. The large touchpad below the keyboard is a little better, but it also suffers from shallowness: It hardly depresses when you tap the built-in buttons, which means that right- and left-clicks are often disregarded. It is a touchpad, though, so you can tap to left-click, and Asus’ Smart Gesture technology (such as pinch to zoom and two-finger scrolling) works smoothly.
The S550CA is a good performer in our benchmarks, with a 1.7GHz core i7 CPU and 6GB of DDR3 memory. The exception is media playback, which is a little disappointing.
The S550CA has no discrete graphics card—just Intel integrated graphics. HD streaming video looks OK, but you will see a lot of artifacting and blurring in scenes with a lot of high-motion content. In other words, video playback on the S550CA is about as good as you can expect on a machine with integrated graphics and a low-res screen.

Display looks great, but resolution could be higher

Also, the screen has a paltry resolution of just 1366 by 768 pixels—par for the course on 11-, 13-, and even 14-inch notebooks, especially cheap ones, but definitely dated on a 15.6-inch screen. The low resolution is unfortunate, because the S550CA has an otherwise excellent-looking screen. Not only is it extremely bright, but colors look crisp and accurate, and off-axis viewing angles are good.

Mike Homnick

The 15.6-inch screen is bright and crisp-looking, with accurate colors, but the resolution is a disappointing 1366 by 768 pixels.

Battery life is mediocre, too: We clocked just under three and a half hours in our rundown tests. This is a laptop you could take around town with you, but not on a long airplane trip, without AC reinforcement.
Audio playback is a little better, however. The speakers, which are located primarily on the bottom of the laptop, produce loud, full sound. Asus’ SonicMaster sound-enhancing technology offers up a decent simulation of surround sound, though it’s certainly not the best sound I’ve ever heard. The only issue is that the main speakers are on the bottom of the laptop, and are situated so that sound gets muffled if you rest the laptop on anything, such as your lap or a desk.

Decent performer for a great price

Getting the full Windows 8 experience—touchscreen and all—doesn’t have to be expensive. The Asus VivoBook S550CA falls short in some performance areas and features, but for many mainstream users, it's still a decent computer for a great price.

AMD launches the Radeon 8970M, its new(ish) notebook graphics flagship

Attention mobile graphics fiends: AMD says its claiming the crown for the “world’s fastest notebook graphics card” with its newly unveiled Radeon HD 8970M.
The new GPU is targeted at desktop replacement gaming laptops, and it will be first found in the MSI GX70 gaming laptop, which starts at $1,100.
The Radeon HD 8970M GPU is powered by AMD’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, built on a 28nm processor, and sports AMD's Enduro optimized power consumption technology for enhanced battery life. The GPU can power a 4K (four times the full HD resolution) display, or—if you have the ports—up to six traditional displays.
The 8970M GPU combines 1280 stream processors with a clock speed of 850 MHz (or 900 MHz with boost), which gives it a precision computer power of 2.3 TFLOPS. The GPU's memory speed is clocked at 1.2GHz. Basically, the new chip sports the same specs as its 7970M predecessor, but tosses in a new 900MHz clock boost.
While the Radeon 8970M is a beast, it's a beast we largely already know.

Playing with power

Anandtech.com

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That said, AMD claims the 8970M offers up to 50 percent faster game performance than Nvidia's beefiest mobile GPU—at least in games optimized for Radeon GPUs. If AMD can continue to convince triple-A game makers to ride the Radeon bandwagon, as it's trying to hard to do, this could be the start of something beautiful for the company's GPUs.
AMD is backing up its mildly stacked gaming results third-party benchmark results, however. The chipmaker says its new flagship showed higher average performance than Nvidia's GeForce GTX 680M in the 3DMark Fire Strike test, and AMD also claims the Radeon 8970M's computing performance chops blow away its competition.

Anandtech.com

(Click to enlarge.)

The 17.3-inch MSI GX70 Windows 8 laptop will be the first notebook to feature AMD’s latest flagship, pairing it with 2GB of graphics VRAM and an AMD Quad-Core A10 series APU. It'll also pack a 1TB 7200rpm hard drive, a Blu-ray and DVD combo drive, an SD card reader, Bluetooth 4.0, five USB ports (two USB 2.0 and three USB 3.0), one VGA port, and one HDMI port.

iPhone 5 Sales in Q4 Reinstated Apple as Top Smartphone Maker

The Samsung Galaxy S III was the best-selling smartphone in Q3. But during Q4 2012, the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S each outsold the Galaxy S III.

The Apple iPhone 5 became the world's best-selling smartphone worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2012—a distinction that Samsung's Galaxy S III held during the third quarter. Apple not only outsold Samsung's most popular Galaxy device with the iPhone 5, but it did it with the iPhone 4S, as well, research firm Strategy Analytics reported Feb. 20. Apple shipped 27.4 million iPhone 5 smartphones during the quarter and 17.4 million iPhone 4S models, compared with Samsung's 15.4 million Galaxy S III devices, according to Strategy Analytics. The iPhone 5 garnered 13 percent of the global smartphone market, and the iPhone 4S had 8 percent of the market. Together, the iPhones accounted for one in five of the smartphones that shipped worldwide during the quarter, Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics' executive director, said in a blog post.  "A rich touch-screen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the iPhone 5's success," wrote Mawston. He added that, given the iPhone portfolio's "premium pricing," Apple's was "an impressive performance."

IBM's PureSystems Strides Past the One-Year Milestone

IBM's PureSystems celebrates its first birthday April 11. A year ago, IBM officials announced what they said was a major step forward in a simpler era of computing, introducing a new category of "expert integrated systems." Observers and IBM insiders said the PureSystems represented as big a move for the company as when it introduced the mainframe 50 years ago. Ambuj Goyal, general manager of development in IBM's Systems and Technology Group, told eWEEK the new family of systems is the first with built-in expertise based on IBM's decades of experience running IT operations for tens of thousands of clients in 170 countries. The PureSystems were the result of $2 billion in R&D and acquisitions over four years, an unprecedented move by IBM to integrate all IT elements, both physical and virtual. The acquisitions included Platform Computing and Blade Network Technologies. "From an IBM perspective, in my lifetime, I have not seen so much of IBM all behind one thing with software, hardware and services; it's like 50 years ago when we announced the mainframe," Goyal said. "In many ways, it is as big as that, but designed for a different world." That was April 2012. Now the PureSystems are out in the wild working hard for IBM clients. Here, eWEEK takes a look at how the systems are being used.

Office 365 Excel 2013 Customer Preview Reveals Easter Egg

Microsoft has added a smart “autofill” feature to the customer preview edition of Exel 2013, which was released Monday, July 16.
Excel 2013 is able to parse a table for like types of data and then autofill the values in the remaining columns. In the canned example provided with the preview version that I looked at in my review, the table was a list of email addresses. The empty column was a name field. Handily enough, the email addresses were in the form of firstname.lastname@examplecompany.com.
You can see my slide show of other Office 365/2013 customer preview features here.
After I typed in the first two first names, Excel found the rest of the first names and offered to fill them in for me.

While it’s true that this canned demo was designed to provide a nearly magical example of how Excel 2013 autofill works, there are a couple of points I should make.

The first is that I didn’t have to do anything to invoke the autofill function. Unlike well-established features like creating a list of sequential numbers--for example, by first entering 1, 2, 3, then selecting the cells, using the corner anchor drag to select a further range of cells and then letting Excel fill in the rest of the numbers--I didn’t have to invoke any Excel menus to start the autofill action. Microsoft has added processing capability to Excel 2013 so that it can do some basic data analysis to provide this convenience feature.
The second point I should make is that on several attempts, I was unable to provoke the autofill response. I have not yet ascertained why this happened, but it appears to have something to do with using the virtual on-screen touch keyboard. Occasionally, when I attempted the autofill example while using the virtual, on-screen touch keyboard, the autofill function did not kick off. If I toggled the keyboard into full width mode or used the physical keyboard, then the autofill function activated.

Most times, the autofill worked, so I’m willing to chalk my sometimes intermittent problems to stray finger taps on the virtual keyboard.
For IT pros who spend time crunching data in Excel, the autofill function will likely be a welcome find when the product goes into production at an as yet unspecified date.

Dell Grows Software Capabilities With SharePlex, Boomi Upgrades

Dell's SharePlex will now replicate data to databases like Netezza and Hadoop, while Boomi AtomSphere gets API management.

Dell officials continue to focus on software as a key part of the company's efforts to evolve into an enterprise IT solutions and services provider. The company has spent billions of dollars over the past few years buying dozens of businesses as it builds out its enterprise technology capabilities. Among the acquisitions have been Quest Software, Gale Technologies and Make Technologies, and Dell officials have promised to invest in and grow the businesses. The company now has a $1.5 billion software business, and in recent weeks has highlighted new software capabilities that are the fruit of such acquisitions. During a conference call with analysts and journalists in February to discuss quarterly financial results, Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said the Quest unit—Dell bought the company last year for $2.4 billion—led strong results for the software business, bringing in more revenue than the $180 million to $200 million expected. "We also saw good sequential growth in our security software business, and continued to add customer-centric software solutions to address critical customer needs," Gladden said.

Intel's Krzanich pledges stronger mobile push in his first speech as CEO

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich admitted Thursday in his first speech in that role that the company has been weak in smartphones and tablets, but aims to improve by advancing chip and manufacturing technologies.

Intel's main focus is to produce more power-efficient chips, as it also adds features for connectivity and security, Krzanich said during a speech at the annual shareholder meeting in Santa Clara, Calif.
"We see that we've been a bit slow to move in the space," Krzanich said of the mobile market. "We're well positioned already and the base of assets we have will allow us to grow much faster in the area."

Krzanich was introduced as the company's new CEO at the meeting, replacing Paul Otellini, who announced last November that he would retire after four decades with the company, including eight years as CEO. Analysts have said Krzanich will be a steady, if not dynamic, leader for Intel. Krzanich has worked across units and has good knowledge of the company's operations, so he will be able to drive Intel's advances in mobile, manufacturing, PCs and the data center.

Krzanich, who was formerly Intel's chief operating officer and vice president, was chosen over a number of other candidates who were considered for the post. One of those candidates was Renee James, who took over as Intel president on Thursday. James was formerly senior vice president and general manager of software and services.

Intel was late to the mobile market under Otellini's watch, which gave processor designer ARM an insurmountable lead. While ARM's processors are used in most smartphones and tablets, Intel's mobile Atom chips are in just 12 smartphones and 15 tablets, but that number is expected to grow.
Chips based on the recently announced Silvermont architecture will be Intel's next step in Atom development. Silvermont is one of the biggest chip architecture advances in Intel's history, said Krzanich, who previously ran the company's Technology and Manufacturing Group, which with more than 50,000 employees is close to half of Intel's total 105,000 employees.

Chips based on Silvermont will be up to three times faster and five times more power efficient than their predecessors. The roster of upcoming Silvermont-based Atom chips includes Bay Trail, which will be in tablets late this year, and Merrifield, which will be in smartphones in the first half of next year.
Starting later this year, Intel will also integrate LTE into Atom chips, which would be a big boost for the mobile business, Krzanich said. The LTE chips will come from Intel's 2010 acquisition of Infineon's wireless assets.
"That really opens up the market for our phones and connected devices," Krzanich said.

Dell profit dives 79 percent on falling PC sales

Dell reported another weak quarter as its founder fights to make it a private company

Dell reported another quarter of declining profits and revenue Thursday as CEO Michael Dell continues his fight to take the company private.

Dell's profit for the quarter, ended May 3, was $130 million, down 79 percent from $635 million a year earlier. Revenue declined 2 percent to $14.07 billion.
Dell's PC division was particularly hard hit. Sales for the quarter were down 9 percent to $8.9 billion, Dell said, and the group's operating profit skidded 65 percent lower to $224 million. Laptop sales were hit especially hard.

Part of the problem is that Windows 8 has failed to drive PC sales. "Windows 8 has been, from our standpoint, not necessarily the catalyst to drive accelerated growth that we thought it would be," CFO Brian Gladden said on a conference call to discuss the results.
He expects PC demand to continue declining over the next few quarters, he said.
The battle to take Dell private has also weighed on its results. The company incurred $90 million in expenses last quarter related to that effort, Gladden said.

Dell's enterprise business showed mixed performance. Sales of servers and network gear were up 14 percent but storage was down 10 percent. Dell's services division reported a 2 percent increase in revenue.
Dell is trying hard to build an enterprise software business, which it hopes will eventually generate higher profits than its PC division. The software group reported an operating loss for the quarter, however, as Dell invested in new sales and R&D staff.

Dell's earnings for the quarter on a pro forma basis, which excludes one-time items, were $0.21 a share, well off the analyst forecast of $0.35 a share, according to Thomson Reuters. The revenue figure was better than expected, however; analysts had forecast $13.5 billion.
In a statement, Gladden said Dell's profits were affected by steps it took to improve its competitiveness. "We'll also continue to make important investments to support our strategy and drive long-term profitability," he said.

Like last quarter, Michael Dell was absent from the earnings call, and a Dell spokesman said the other executives would not take questions about Dell going private.
Michael Dell announced in February that he planned to take the company private in a deal with Silver Lake Partners valued at $24.4 billion. The company founder has said he wants some breathing room to focus on long term investments without the constant scrutiny from Wall Street.
The plan has run into serious opposition from big shareholders, who think the company is worth more than Michael Dell and his partners have offered to pay.
Shareholders may end up being asked to vote on the matter this summer. If a majority of shares are voted in favor of Michael Dell's plan to take the company private, Dell's biggest outside investor, Southeastern Asset Management, has indicated it might go to court to fight for a higher price.