Samsung Introduces New Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

Samsung has just confirmed that another variation of its Samsung Galaxy Tab will be hitting stores soon. This new device, known as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, will begin selling on November 13, 2011 at many U.S. retailers for a surprisingly reasonable $399.99 according to a statement released by Samsung.

The 16GB tablet, complete with 7" screen, is focused more on home entertainment than business usage, coming complete with a Peel Smart Remote TV app that allows you to tap on the screen in order to quickly find and watch television shows on any manufacturer's TV or home entertainment system.

In addition to that, built-in infrared in the tablet allows you to control a home theater or television setup. The best part is that you don't need any extra cables or hardware, just what you already have in your living room and the tablet, in order to control the TV functions. The Peel remote app allows you to have full control over your TV or entertainment system regardless if it is Samsung brand or not.

Aside from controlling your DVD player, Blu-Ray player, set-top box or TV, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus will also connect to Facebook and Twitter allowing you to share information about what is being watched. According to Chief Experience Officer for Peel Greg Lindley, "Peel's vision is eliminating the barriers between you and your favorite shows."

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus runs on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor as well as Android 3.2 Honeycomb for an operating system. The device is also only .39" thick and only weighs 12.1 ounces.

Samsung has a plethora of tablets that come with either WiFi only or WiFi and 3G/4G connectivity. According to the website, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus features both cellular and WiFi capabilities though Samsung has yet to announce which U.S. wireless carriers will support the tablet.

The original Galaxy Tab ran on Android 2.2 and upgraded to 2.3 back in May. It too had a 7" touch screen but was slightly larger and heavier and only came with a 1GHz processor. Sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus will begin on November 13 nationwide at Best Buy, Amazon, tiger Direct, Fry's and other outlets with pre-orders becoming available on October 23.

Source: Computer World - Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus to ship Nov. 13 for $400

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Toshiba Introduces Tiny Enterprise Hard Drives

Toshiba's Storage Products Business Unit has just announced a high-capacity 2.5" high-performance enterprise-class drive. Known as the Toshiba MK01GRRB/R series, this drive supports the exacting requirements for compute-intensive environments witha 15,000 RPM spin speed, a 6Gb/s SAS interface and a maximum capacity of 300GB1. In addition to that, this drive also offers drive-based encryption in order to help companies manage data security.

According to Vice President of Marketing at Toshiba's Storage Products Business Unit Joel Hagberg, "Enterprise customers are increasingly satisfying their performance and capacity needs with power efficient small form factor drives. Enterprise drives with the latest self-encryption features are helping data centers to more cost-effectively achieve compliance with information security mandates. Toshiba small form factor enterprise drives deliver the performance, capacity and security features IT administrators require for today's mission critical server storage and cloud appliance markets."

The third-generation 2.5-inch 15,000 RPM enterprise drives leverage an enhanced power condition state that reduces the spin of your hard drive in idle states. In addition to that, it also significantly lowers power consumption which also means lower heat dissipation, increasing system stability and less energy usage. As a part of Toshiba's commitment to improved security, this drive also features self-encryption technology that is designed for the Trusted Computing Group "Enterprise SSC" specification.

According to John Rydning, IDC's Research Vice President for Hard Disk Drives, "Increasing the capacity of the 2.5-inch enterprise class HDDs is expanding the market opportunity for this form factor given its inherent power and data density advantages as compared to 3.5-inch models. Toshiba's new MK01GRRB/R series drives give server and storage system customers the capacity they want with the performance they need, as well as the ability to secure data on the drive with Toshiba's SED technology option." Shipments of the Toshiba MK01GRRB/R Series are scheduled to begin in volume in Q1 2012.

Source: Engadget - Toshiba introduces tine enterprise hard drives with big speed and big storage

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London 2012: Powered By Acer

We have known for some time that the London 2012 Olympics will be in part powered by Acer. What we are just now finding out is the details on how they are going to supply the athletes, in house functions and guard stations. It looks like Acer will be providing some 11,000 computers to be used next summer, as well as providing the scanners that the security gates are using. This should provide a big boost to the Acer name and the company as a whole.

A more recent report is showing that Acer will be providing around 10,000 desktop PC’s, another 1,000 laptops, and a little under a thousand servers. Acer will be sticking with their Veriton L670Gs, which is not exactly a powerhouse computer by any means. At the highest tier these PC’s only come with Windows Vista (which will be loaded for the games), Intel’s Core 2 Quad, 4 GB of DDR2, and a serial ATA. The laptops, on the other hand, are their TravelMate 6593Gs running Windows 7 but still stuck with the dual core chips. Sure Usain Bolt can run 100 meters in 9.58, but the technology he is using is from 2007.

It is also worth mentioning that Acer will be sporting anywhere from 300 to 400 employees on staff to help with all technical issues. Among those staff members only a small margin of them (3% or less) will be from outside of Britain, but most are extremely well trained, with a majority even working on the Vancouver 2010 games.

Good luck, fellow techies working the games, good luck.

Sources:

Itpro.co.uk - Going for Gold - IT at the London Olympics

Theregister.co.uk - London 2012 Olympics: 17000 athletes, 11000 computers

Acer - TravelMate 6593 Series Quick Guide – PDF

Acer – Veriton L670 Series Quick Guide – PDF

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Napster to be Acquired by Rhapsody

One of the oldest internet subscription music services on the web, Rhapsody, has finally, and officially, acquired Napster subscribers as well as a host of other assets from Best Buy. However, Best Buy will retain a minority stake in Rhapsody according to a joint statement from both companies.

The acquisition is expected to close on November 30 according to the companies. Best Buy is unloading a music service that really struggled before being acquired by Rhapsody and seemingly disappeared afterwards. Financial terms of the deal have not officially been released though it does not appear that Best Buy's investment in Napster has paid off.

The electronics retailer acquired a revamped version of Napster back in 2008 which allowed the company to officially enter into the online music sector. Napster started off as the pioneer file-sharing service back in the day. The service allowed users to share songs with each other via the internet. However, lawsuits filed by multiple recording companies nearly destroyed the company, eventually leading to the selling of the trademark and brand.

Three years ago Best Buy launched an all-cash tender offer for outstanding Napster shares priced at $2.65 per share; the full acquisition was valued at $121 million. That number represented a $54 million net of approximately $67 million in cash and short-term investments. Napster recognized that it had 700,000 members when Best Buy acquired the service though it is unclear as to how many the company has now.

Despite Napster's failure, Rhapsody appears to be years ahead of its time. Over the past ten years Rhapsody worked on getting consumers interested in subscription music services. Now the entire music industry is attempting to make that business model work.

Rhapsody was owned, in part, by RealNetworks and Viacom, though those companies spun off the service back in April 2010. Since then, managers for Rhapsody have been trying to prevent upstart "all-you-can-eat" services from taking all the credit. Spotify, MOG and some other digital music services are just some of the many services that charge a monthly fee for premium services, just like Rhapsody.

Source: CNET - Rhapsody to acquire Napster (scoop)

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Microsoft's IE9 Strategy Fails to Produce Results

As the rise of other browsers, like Google Chrome, begin to show, so does the demise of others, namely Internet Explorer. The web browser, designed by Microsoft, continued to lose members last month, losing the largest number of users since December 2010.

During September, Internet Explorer lost nine-tenths of a percentage point of share, dropping to 54.4%, a new record low for the browser. The drop experienced last month was the seventh straight decline and the largest decline since December of last year where Internet Explorer fell by 1.1 points. Causing the decrease was, of course, Google Chrome, which saw shares increase by seven-tenths of a point. Adding to the decline was Apple's Safari browser, which saw an increase of four-tenths of a percentage point.

Chrome ended the month with a 16.2% share with Safari accounting for 5% of all browsers used worldwide. Microsoft, on the other hand, focused on looking at the brighter side by plugging the success of Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7. Head of Internet Explorer's Marketing Roger Capriotti used data from Net Applications to highlight the gains of IE9 by pointing out that the browser version owned 21% global share of browsers running on Windows 7.

Internet Explorer 9 is the second-most popular internet browser on Windows 7 with a 21% compared to Internet Explorer 8's leading 31.6%. Firefox 6 and Chrome 13 came in third and fourth place, respectively, with 13.9% and 13.1%. Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't outlined an alternate strategy for stopping IE defections. While the focus on Internet Explorer 9 may pay off in the long run, it has failed to slow down the number of defectors heading to Safari, Chrome or Firefox. Since its debut, Microsoft has lost 4 percentage points of share with Internet Explorer 9.

Source: Computer World - Microsoft's IE9-first strategy fails to stem browser slide

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Popular Industries for Computer Rentals

There are several industries that take advantage of technology rentals like computers, laptops, projectors, temporary office equipment and audio visual rentals. Many business industries can benefit from them in a wide variety of ways.

For instance, Small to Medium Business Industry Computer Rentals occur on a regular basis. They are perfect for when a computer or laptop malfunctions or breaks down. A small to medium business usually needs a replacement rental so that business continues smoothly, even while their own equipment is damaged. It can give a business time to repair their equipment or get new equipment.

Small and medium businesses are not the only type of industry to commonly rent computers or audio visual equipment. Fortune 500 Industry Computer Rentals are also popular when one of these businesses needs to accommodate a growing staff or is expanding. Technology rentals are also convenient when gearing up for presentations, conferences, trade shows or an event for product launching.

Computer rentals are becoming more of a trend as more companies and businesses are seeing the many benefits they can provide for their specific industry. Find out more Computer Rental Industries

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Mozilla Debating a 5-Week Release Schedule for Firefox

I think it is safe to say that the new six week rapid release cycle for Mozilla's Firefox internet browser has drawn a lot of controversy since it was announced and put into effect. However, it seems as if Mozilla likes the negative press because it seems as if there could be more to come from this rapid release cycle.

In a recent thread noticed on a developer mailing list, anybody and everybody involved in the effort has been debating the possibility of shortening the cycle even more. These developers are considering shortening the already short six week cycle to a five week cycle or even shorter than that.

According to Mozilla Software Engineer Josh Aas, "Our transition to releasing every six weeks went really well. We're getting fixes to users much more quickly than we used to, but can we get fixes to users even faster? Moving to a five week cycle would mean a fix going into mozilla-central would get to users three weeks faster."

So shortening the short cycle that people are already complaining about sounds like a good idea? To Aas it does. "That's a big deal," Aas added. "It's an upgrade in responsiveness that we can't afford not to pass on if we can pull it off. I suspect the only way to know if we can do it is to try - we can always back off if it doesn't work out."

However, not everybody is objecting to the idea of shortening the cycle. Firefox Release Manager Christian Legnitto stated, "Yes, I absolutely think in the future we will shorten the cycle--but it won't be soon. We have some work to do to make six weeks smooth from a process, tool and product side. When we get six weeks down to a science, we can shorten as needed."

Source: PC World - Mozilla Mulls a 5-Week Firefox Release Cycle

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