Google fights excessive power usage with video contest

Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) in partnership with Google has launched the Power Down for the Planet video contest.

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Exclusive training on ApacheCon Europe 2009

Amsterdam, The Netherlands — ApacheCon Europe, the official user conference of The Apache Software Foundation, has unveiled the program for two days of special training sessions that will be available before the main conference begins.
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Search on Twitter

Ever wondered what others, those who you do not follow are talking about on Twitter in their 140 character messages? Yes, you did, as you’re human, too, and humans are curious.
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AdSense introduces expandable ads

Adsense, the most used revenue generator amongst bloggers will serve third-party, expandable ads on the content network, as per the announcement made by Courtney Chin on the Official AdSense blog.
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Cheap academic PCs from Microsoft and Lenovo

REDMOND, Wash., and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Microsoft and Lenovo announced today the Ultimate Academic Personal Computer promotion. The two party will offer higher-end Lenovo laptops designed specifically for college and university students, faculty, and staff.
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Challenges for digital photographers

SEATTLE & LONDON – “Challenges” is the name of a new feature launched by Dpreview.com and an Amazon Inc. subsidiary. The new feature of the photography related web-site offer photographers the opportunity to create, participate in and judge photographic competitions. The feature was launched in beta in December 2008 and already more than 19,000 images have been submitted and more than a quarter of a million votes have been cast by the community.

Any Dpreview.com user can create a Challenge and establish his or her own rules and guidelines whether it’s a pro or an amateur photographer. Then, anyone can upload submissions for the Challenge set forth. Once the Challenge is complete, the photos are voted on by the community and submissions are ranked with the winners announced.

“This is the first set of new features we are developing for our photographer community. We are very excited by how quickly our community has already embraced this service, even while still in beta, and the amazing quality of the initial images submitted,” continued Askey. “Challenges has already become one of the most trafficked areas of the site.”

“Dpreview has long been known for having vibrant online photographer communities,” said Phil Askey, founder of Dpreview.com. “Now it’s even easier for photographers to show off their work, garner feedback from their peers and collect acclaim from the community through their votes and ratings.”

For more information on Dpreview.com or Challenges please visit www.dpreview.com/challenges.

Intel solution for global challenges: Innovation and Technology

CEBIT 2009, Hannover, Germany – Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett today urged the tech industry and nations to “innovate and invest” to spur economic development and solve global challenges.

Calling innovation and technology “the backbone of the modern economy,” Barrett told an audience at CeBIT 2009 that investments in information and communications technology (ICT) will help ensure economic prosperity as the world undergoes a digital transformation.

“There are three gauges nations can tune to compete,” said Barrett as he kicked off the world’s largest technology trade show. “Investing in good education produces smart people. Investing in research and development produces smart ideas. And, creating the right environment in which smart people can develop smart ideas. These steps would stimulate economic growth, jobs and new opportunities including future collaborations among private industry, government and academia.”

Barrett’s conclusions are drawn from observations visiting more than 30 countries a year as a “technology ambassador” and as chairman of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development. Countries that invest wisely in technology are better equipped to deal with those challenges, he said, while countries that ignore or delay such investments are increasingly likely to find themselves at a global disadvantage.

“In the current global economic climate, thinking long-term is more important than ever,” Barrett said. “Today, we can lay the groundwork for growth. Many nations and businesses try to save their way out of a recession. It is much better to invest our way out.”

Barrett believes that investing in new ideas and inventions not only stimulates job creation, but also increases productivity, leads to new forms of energy and smarter energy consumption, improves health care and medicines, and gives consumers more benefits for less cost.

Barrett stressed the need to invest in education as the foundation of a strong economy, especially as developed nations shift from production societies to knowledge-based ones. He also said developing countries can build on that foundation by accelerating the use of computers, the Internet and other technologies in classrooms so young people are prepared to compete for careers in the 21st century.

Investments in education are especially imperative given that more than 75 million primary-age children throughout the developing world are not in school and need help getting an education, according to Barrett.

One of the most successful ways that Intel invests in education, Barrett noted, is through the Intel® Teach program, which is designed to enhance classroom learning by training teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum. In Europe, nearly 1 million teachers have completed the Intel Teach training to date. In Germany alone, half of all teachers have been trained through the program, which is offered in every German state, and 89 percent of teachers report that they are making use of technology in the classroom as a result of their training.

“Nothing beats investing in good people and good ideas,” Barrett told the CeBIT audience. He added that government and business partnerships are fundamental in driving solutions and confronting global challenges.

Currently in its 23rd year, CeBIT is the world’s largest conference showcasing solutions for the world of IT and telecommunications. The 6-day event is expected to draw exhibitors from more than 75 countries and nearly half a million visitors from all over the world.

Intel to port Atom CPU cores to TSMCs technology platform to expand market for Atom Processors SoC Customers

Santa Clara, CA & Hsin-chu, Taiwan — Intel Corporation and TSMC today announced a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on addressing technology platform, intellectual property (IP) infrastructure, and System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions. Under the MOU, Intel would port its Atom processor CPU cores to the TSMC technology platform including processes, IP, libraries, and design flows. The collaboration is intended to expand Intel’s Atom SoCs availability for Intel customers for a wider range of applications through integration with TSMC’s diverse IP infrastructure.

This MOU is an important step in a long-term strategic technology cooperation between Intel and TSMC. With this joint effort, Intel intends to significantly broaden the market opportunities for its Intel Atom SoCs and accelerate deployment of the architecture through multiple SoC implementations. At the same time, TSMC extends its technology platform to serve the Intel Architecture market segments.

“We believe this effort will make it easier for customers with significant design expertise to take advantage of benefits of the Intel Architecture in a manner that allows them to customize the implementation precisely to their needs,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. “The combination of the compelling benefits of our Atom processor combined with the experience and technology of TSMC is another step in our long-term strategic relationship.”

“TSMC values our strategic relationship with Intel. This MOU brings together the Intel Architecture and the TSMC technology platform. We expect this collaboration will help proliferate the Atom processor SoC and foster overall semiconductor growth,” said Dr. Rick Tsai, president and CEO of TSMC. “With this agreement, our technology platform extends beyond the two companies’ current collaboration to support future Intel embedded x86 products.”

The Intel Atom processor features 47 million transistors and is Intel’s smallest processor. Products manufactured through the agreement may find adoption in embedded CPU market segments such as mobile internet Devices (MIDs), smart-phones, netbooks, nettops, and AC-powered consumer electronics device. The processor is designed to bring the whole Internet and the benefits of computing to an emerging class of consumer-friendly devices.

Source — Press Release – Intel

Windows 7 drivers for nVidia GeForce graphics boards

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — NVIDIA today announced the immediate availability of new graphics drivers from www.nvidia.com for NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GPU owners running the new Windows 7 Beta. Today’s availability represents the start of regular NVIDIA driver updates for the forthcoming operating system from Microsoft. Windows 7 will be the first Windows operating system to fully integrate and take advantage of the GPU for both graphics and parallel computing.

“Since its release last month, the Windows 7 Beta has been eagerly tested by hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GeForce owners, who are excited about the many graphical improvements Microsoft has added into the upcoming operating system,” said Ujesh Desai, vice president of GeForce desktop business at NVIDIA.

GeForce version 181.71 graphics drivers, released today on NVIDIA.com, support the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) v1.1 from Microsoft. Powered by NVIDIA DirectX 10 GPUs, WDDM v1.1 drivers provide an optimal visual experience in Windows 7. These drivers offer increased performance and reliability in both 2D and 3D applications, including the 3D Windows Aero desktop.

“We expect that all of our hard work teaming with Microsoft over the past two years will pay off for GeForce GPU owners when Windows 7 officially launches,” said Dwight Diercks, vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA. “Our customers are demanding an experience that is faster and more visual, and with the addition of many new GPU-accelerated features, including DirectX Compute, we believe Windows 7 will be well positioned to meet those needs.”

To download the new Windows 7 Beta drivers for NVIDIA GPUs, please visit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_7.html

Press release – nVidia

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic now available in North America

White Plains, NY, USA – Nokia announced today that the highly anticipated Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is now available in the United States. The latest in Nokia’s XpressMusic range, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic delivers an affordable music device with a touch screen interface to the mass market.

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