Archive for the 'BBC' Category
Virgin150Mb broadband
Posted by NewsFeeder on 24th March 2009
Virgin Media will offer 100 to 150Mbps broadband speeds up to two years before BT completes its rival fibre network.
Read more … [BBC News]
Posted in BBC, General | No Comments »
‘Carbon cost’ of Google revealed
Posted by NewsFeeder on 13th January 2009
Two search requests on the internet website Google produce “as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle”, according to a Harvard University academic.
US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross claims that a typical Google search on a desktop computer produces about 7g CO2.
However, these figures were disputed by Google, who say a typical search produced only 0.2g of carbon dioxide.
A recent study by American research firm Gartner suggested that IT now causes two percent of global emissions.
Dr Wissner-Gross’s study claims that two Google searches on a desktop computer produces 14g of CO2, which is the roughly the equivalent of boiling an electric kettle.
The research found a google search
produced 7g of carbon dioxide
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Microsoft begins Windows 7 push
Posted by NewsFeeder on 8th January 2009
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Microsoft launches Windows 7 beta
The first public trial, or beta, version of Windows 7 has been released. Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer used his keynote speech at CES to announce that software developers would get at the trial version on 7 January. On 9 January members of the public will get the chance to download the successor to Windows for themselves. Mr Ballmer said Windows 7 would be the pivot of a broader Microsoft push to improve the way its separate software and service families work together. In delivering the opening keynote, Mr Ballmer has taken over from Bill Gates - who in 2008 bowed out of day-to-day involvement with the company he founded. In a nod to the chilly economic climate, Mr Ballmer said: “We face some really big challenges. We are all feeling it and its impact will likely be with us for some time.” But, he said, the global economic slowdown would not hobble the pace of technological change. “I believe our digital lives will only continue to get richer,” said Mr Ballmer. “There’s no turning back from the connected world.” The newest version of the Windows operating system would, he said, be the “linchpin” of an effort to make it easier for customers to do more with the different Microsoft gadgets and services they use. Windows 7’s new features
Although Windows 7 was a trial version it was, said Mr Ballmer, almost “feature complete” and would help to re-define the way people thought of the software. Instead of it being an operating system mainly associated with a PC, he said, Windows was becoming a “connected platform and experience”. Microsoft is expected to cap the number of copies of the beta version of Windows 7 available to the public. The minimum requirements for running Windows 7 are a PC with a 1 Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16 GB of disk space, 128MB of video memory and support for DX9 graphics.
Some of the Windows 7’s features help it work with other devices. A “home group” system makes it straightforward to enrol PCs, Xbox consoles, media servers and other gadgets into a local network that can share media and content. Demonstrations during Mr Ballmer’s keynote also showed changes to Windows Live online services that let it act as a co-ordinating centre for many of the things people do on the web. In connection with this Mr Ballmer announced a deal with Facebook which would mean any changes a member made to their page on the social networking site would be echoed on their Windows Live pages. Windows Live’s new features
Another feature shown off was a “Quick Add” system that made it easy to annotate e-mail and instant messages with weblinks and other information from specific categories, such as restaurant locations, without firing up separate applications. Another demonstration showed a phone running Windows Mobile being used to control the list of favourite TV shows and movies that customers of Microsoft’s internet TV system Media Room can compile. “Today much of the stuff we care about sits in silos; on a PC, phone or the web,” said Mr Ballmer. “Your experiences are split when you move from one to another.” “Increasingly these barriers are going away,” he said, adding that the internet would act as the cloud linking all three. He predicted that the PC, phone and TV would become closely connected devices that acted as an individual’s digital “ecosystem”. “Connecting all these devices together is the last mile in creating a real breakthrough experience for consumers,” said Mr Ballmer. |
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Connecting all these devices together is the last mile in creating a real breakthrough experience 
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Chinese PC giant to cut workforce
Posted by TMP on 8th January 2009
Lenovo is the world’s fourth-biggest personal computer maker
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One of the world’s largest computer manufacturers, Chinese-based Lenovo, says it is to cut about 2,500 jobs around the world.
Lenovo blamed the cuts, which amount to nearly 11% of its total workforce, on the global economic downturn and a fall in demand for PCs.
It said the cuts were part of efforts to save $300m (£200m) in the coming financial year.
They were, it argued, essential if the company was to remain competitive.
“As hard as this news is for all of our Lenovo employees, we believe the steps we are taking today are necessary for Lenovo to compete in today’s economy,” said chief executive William J Amelio.
The company also said it expected to see losses in the final quarter of the financial year.
The statement said Lenovo had been hit by “the unprecedented global economic challenges facing the world, resulting in a reducing demand for personal computers and related products”.
It also said that a reduction in demand from China, historically a major Lenovo market, had affected the company’s fortunes.
Lenovo’s net profits dropped 78% in the three months until the end of September.
Posted in BBC | No Comments »