Pc News

[Rasputin]

External PCI-Express Graphics for Laptops

Notebook gamers rejoice! ASUS today announced a first-of-its-kind device that allows PCI-Express graphic cards from a desktop computer to be used with a notebook.

The orange/grey toned docking station, dubbed the XG Station, connects into the ExpressCard slot found on most new notebooks. The full-sized graphics card inside the XG Station then powers an external monitor, which becomes the primary display. The right side of the XG Station also features two USB 2.0 ports, a Dolby 5.1 audio-output jack, and a microphone input (perfect for gaming headsets).

ASUS said it expects to start shipping the XG Station around May for around $600 (possibly including a 3-year warranty) and most likely bundled with an ASUS EN7900GS board (our number 3 ranked graphics card at press time). The company was tight-lipped when asked if it would offer the unit without the bundled board, but in my brief time with a pre-production unit here at CES 2007, I did notice that you can easily swap in your own card.

A Closer Look
The XG Station features a large, 5-inch-wide, car-stereo-like control panel on its front. This displays real time information such as master volume, a game's current fame rate per second, in addition to clock speed and fan speed statistics for the graphics card itself. These settings can easily be adjusted using either the large function knob, or through software that mimics the look and feel of the hardware. You'll be able to position the XG Station either horizontally or vertically, and the number read-out will automatically rotate.

Positioned horizontally, the L-shaped device measures 10.75-inches wide by 4.5-inches high by 6.35-inches long. ASUS confirmed support for Windows Vista and Windows XP in addition to most modern ATI and Nvidia PCI-Express boards. The notable exception: Nvidia's recent high-end 8800-based cards (they're too long to fit inside the XG Station's casing).

The First of a New Series?
A mesh-like grill on the rear slope of the XG Station lets you see the graphics card inside bathed in blue light. Written above this area is "ASUS Gaming Series XG", which could give the impression that this is the first in a new line of products. When I pressed the company a little further, it declined to comment on this, future designs, or possible SLI/CrossFire multi-card support.

For notebook gamers happy with their 17- or 19-inch internal display, the company did say it doesn't plans to allow the card to feed its output back into the internal screen of a notebook, pointing out that such desktop replacement models usually have decent discrete graphics as it is.

Performance
As mentioned, the XG Station lets you overclock its graphics card in real-time simply by turning the large control knob. Though you won't quite get the same performance as you would if that same card was used a desktop PC, this is a welcomed feature. Out of the box, ASUS claims an up-to-9-times performance boost over integrated Intel 945GM graphics. Of course, now that we've got a unit to test, we'll let you know our full results in the very near future.

[Rasputin]

Toshiba Cuts The Cost of 1080p HD DVD

Toshiba is lowering the entry price to full-HD video with its new HD-A20 HD DVD player.

The player is the third machine in Toshiba's HD DVD player family and is scheduled to hit U.S. store shelves in the "spring," the company said at a news conference. It will cost around $600. The other two players in the family, the HD-A2 and HD-XA2 have already been launched and cost around $500 and $1,000 respectively. the announcement came at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show here this week.

Highest of High Definition
The main attraction of the HD-A20 will likely be full HD playback of movie titles. The machine supports 1080p (1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scanning) output, which is the highest of several standards that falls within high-definition. Until now 1080p has only been available on the more expensive HD-XA2 model. The cheaper HD-A2 offered 1080i (1080 lines with interlaced scanning).

Many new flat-panel TV sets support 1080p, which is branded "Full HD," and Toshiba hopes the new player will appeal to those with a keen interest in picture quality.

Advantages Of More Expensive Model
The HD-XA2 still holds several advantages over the HD-A20 including support for a new version of the HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) standard that has wider color support. Dubbed "Deep Color," the function is available on HDMI 1.3 -- a standard that is on its top model. The HD-A20 supports standard HDMI 1.2.

Toshiba said sales plans for Europe and Japan are still under consideration. The company currently sells HD DVD players in the U.S. and Europe, but not in its home market of Japan.

[Rasputin]

Macworld Expo Preview: It's Not Just About iPods

SAN FRANCISCO -- Although much of the speculation about new product announcements at the upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo centers around video iPods, a possible Apple cell phone, and iTV, business people have their own product wish lists.

The iWorks business applications suite, for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, is Apple's alternative to Microsoft Office 2007. Its launch is described as "one of the company's more significant product launches of the year," according to ThinkSecret.com, one of several Apple rumor Web sites.

Improvements to iWorks '07 over iWorks '06 may include a new spreadsheet application and other changes to make it easier to import and export Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, ThinkSecret reports.

Adjusting to Intel
But a more fundamental change to Apple's place in the enterprise market is its conversion from the PowerPC to the Intel processor platform.

Chief information officers proposing a move to the Mac need to make an easy-to-understand business case to the chief financial officer or chief executive officer, said Schoun Regan, CEO of ITInstruction.com, an information technology training company specializing in Macs.

"I think the word 'Intel' carries a lot of weight," said Regan, who also is chairman of the MacIT Conference that runs concurrently with Macworld Monday through Thursday here.

All Apple computers now ship with Intel processors, but they are backwards compatible with Mac applications designed for the PowerPC platform.

"It's incredible for a company as large as Apple, in just one year, to make that transition with very few hiccups," Regan said.

Some business customers whose IT infrastructure is primarily Intel-powered machines running Windows are investing in their first Intel-based Macs, "to see what they can do," he said.

Business: Tough Sell
But other observers think wider adoption of Macs in the business environment is a tall order.

"There's a little bit of a mind shift involved to go to a different platform," said Bill Kish, CEO of Coyote PointSystems, a provider of applications traffic management technology on computer networks. He is another presenter at the MacIT Conference.

Still, Kish anticipates more business interest in Apple to come from the expected introduction this spring of Leopard Server, the server operating system adjunct to the Mac OS X 10.5 upgrade. Leopard Server is targeted at small businesses, offering simplified system management tools for small workgroups.

Those developments aside, however, Apple will remain a niche player in the enterprise by choice, said Mark Margevicius, an analyst with Gartner.

"Apple really hasn't positioned its technology to go after the enterprise market," said Margevicius. "I keep asking them 'What's stopping you?' and they say, 'That's something we're not targeting now.'"

Apple's Focus
Apple remains focused in a few vertical markets including publishing, graphic design, and digital animation moviemaking, he said, but expanding beyond that isn't part of its plan.

Competing against Hewlett-Packard, Dell, or Sun Microsystems for a large enterprise contract requires a longer sales cycle than selling to a consumer or small business. It also usually requires steep discounting for volume sales, Margevicius said, which is not something Apple is interested in doing.

[Rasputin]

Ending the Tyranny of the VGA Cable

LAS VEGAS -- The past few years have seen a clear trend toward ridding desktop PCs of wires. But the VGA cable connecting your system to your monitor has been a stubborn holdout. Now a company called Quartics is looking to sever that tie, using technology that will allow monitors to link via wired or wireless USB connections.

The Irvine, California, firm doesn't make monitors, but it does produce the semiconductors necessary for USB connections. Quartics expects its partners to come out with USB monitors sometime in the next month. And Belkin is already selling a USB hub designed to connect to a PC's USB port by means of ultrawideband wireless technology.

Making a video connection through USB would simplify the task of setting up multiple monitors: In theory, a single laptop could support more than 25 displays, according to Quartics' Mahboob Akhter. The technology would also make computing devices such as ultramobile PCs--which generally have USB ports but no VGA port--more useful.

From PC to TV
I saw a brief demonstration of a USB monitor at Quartics' hotel room at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas; and the image seemed clean, though I didn't get an opportunity to play with the system.

Ultimately, Quartics is pursuing a bigger goal that has nothing to do with USB: wireless transfers of video content from your PC to your TV. That's an objective that lots of companies here at CES share (yesterday Netgear announced another approach).

Quartics demonstated a prototype of its PC2TV system, which uses a small box equipped with a Wi-Fi radio. You use a wired connection (a VGA cable in Quartics' demo) to hook up the box to your TV or monitor, and then you wirelessly network your PC to the box, just as you would connect to any other wireless network. When you subsequently launch your Web browser, the page that comes up includes a link that automatically loads drivers for the device onto your PC.

At that point, you bring up a small application that lets you mirror your PC's display on the TV or extend your desktop onto the TV's screen.

Latency Issues
There was clearly some latency going through the Quartics system, which compresses data so that it will fit the bandwidth of your wireless connection, and then decompresses it for display on your TV. The quality of the picture I saw was not as high as that of an image from a DVD player--but it looked pretty good, given the manipulation it had undergone.

Addlogix, which sells interface cables and other networking gear, has announced that it is using the Quartics chip in some of its products. And Quartics officials have said that they expect the chip to be embedded in some televisions by next fall.

The Quartics system allows you to see any content viewable on your PC on your TV. Other systems for showing PC content on a TV support some PC video formats, but not others--or they may be optimized to work with a specific Web site, such as YouTube, but not with all online video sites.

Netgear's media streamer, for instance, will provide access to the most popular videos on YouTube for that day. With the Quartics system, you would be able to view any video on YouTube, Google Video, or any other site.

[Rasputin]

Toshiba Readies Millions of HD DVD Players

LAS VEGAS -- New movie releases, more market entrants, improved technology and 1.8 million HD DVD players from Toshiba are the weapons companies plan to use in the format battle against rival Blu-ray Disc this year, executives said Sunday.

By the end of 2007, there will be 600 movies available for users with an HD DVD player or drive, said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Big Announcements All Year
The Japanese electronics giant will release the next generation of its HD DVD players this year, including the HD A20 HD DVD player announced earlier on Sunday.

The vendor will also add a huge number of total players shipped in North America alone, 1.8 million, said Yoshihide Fujii, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Toshiba's digital media network company.

"This is a very conservative figure," he said.

In addition, the HD DVD trade group expects revenue for HD DVD players, drives and discs in North America this year to top $600 million, said Kornblau.

Winning the Battle?
Sales of HD DVD players during the recent winter holidays were stellar, with Microsoft selling out of the HD DVD drives it built for its Xbox 360 game consoles.

"Demand well outpaced the supply we could produce last year," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Consumer Media Technology Group at Microsoft.

Toshiba also announced new improvements to HD DVD technology that will greatly increase its storage capacity. The company said it developed a triple-layer HD DVD-ROM (read only memory) disc that can hold 51G bytes of data on a single-sided disc, a huge advance over current discs. Toshiba was able to increase the capacity by enabling each of three layers on a disc to store 17G bytes of data. The vendor aims to gain approval for the new disc by the DVD Forum this year.

Overall, the companies in the HD DVD trade group said last year offered a tremendous boostto the popularity of HD DVD, with sales of up to 28 movies per player over the course of the year.

"It is similar to when DVDs were first being adopted," said Kornblau, saying that he expects 2007 to be a stellar year for HD DVD.

[Rasputin]

Vista Upgrade: The Not-So-Rosy Picture

You thought you were finished with me and my Vista rants. No such luck, folks. According to the e-mail I've been getting, the buzz around Vista is still alive and well.

Things aren't looking so hot for Vista's right-around-the corner consumer release. There are a slew of reports that make me wonder if Vista's rough edges are going to keep lots of people from upgrading.

Step Into the Lab
Let's start with a PC World Labs report. After testing the soon-to-be-released Vista, it's clear that if you want to use all of Vista's features, you're going to need a truckload of power--at a minimum, 1GB of RAM and a fast dual-core processor. It makes me wonder if Vista's worth the move.

There's other not-so-good news. Notebooks users are going to see some of Vista's features gobbling up more battery power than they expected.

On the can't-we-just-work-together front: Security vendors (McAfee and Symantec, for instance) are unhappy with Microsoft. They're claiming Microsoft's making it difficult for them to gain access to the part of the OS they need in order to upgrade their antivirus and anti-spyware tools to work with Vista. The hottest issue, among other things, is host-based intrusion detection. I love it when these behemoths duke it out---provided, of course, they work things out before everyone upgrades.

Not surprisingly, our IDG News folks are saying that large companies are reluctant to upgrade for the reasons I've mentioned, and also because of program incompatibilities, the risk of hardware drivers not being available, and Microsoft's reluctance to issue patches for Vista.

If you're planning on playing content that's protected by digital rights management on a high-end audio device, such as one with a Sony/Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF), you may be out of luck. Chris Mellor, of IDG's Techworld, reports that Vista disables equipment that doesn't have content protection features.

On the hacking side of things, Engadget reports that that there's a way to "freeze the 30-day countdown timer within the operating system in order to prevent it from ever leaving the fully functional evaluation mode."

I'm sure the Microsofties are on the case.

Dig This: Moe and Edna sent me a link to a movie trivia site. They said, "We had a blast with this one in the office. We managed to figure out 15 out of 20 (there's no answer sheet on the site) and wasted about 15 minutes." Me, I'm stuck at 2 out of 20.

Free Vista With All the Trimmings
I looked on the front door porch: nada. Ditto for the back door. I was looking for the Acer Ferrari laptop loaded with Vista and Office 2007 that Microsoft was sending to a list of special bloggers.

With all my bad-mouthing, you might not be surprised to hear that I'm not on any of Microsoft's lists--except that very special one that starts with a capital "S" and ends with a "t." I was put on that list in 1995 after making what were called "disparaging" remarks.

It happened at PIBMUG, the users group I ran. Microsoft was there to show off Win 95 to the group's 2000 members. I was on stage doing the intro. The microphone wasn't working and a Microsoftie fiddled with it for a few minutes. When I got sound, I glibly said, "Wow, that's the best tech support I've ever had from Microsoft." I couldn't help myself.

The Laptop Deal
The laptops, according to 18-year-old Long Zheng, a blogger living in Australia, aren't gifts, but review units to help bloggers become familiar with Vista. Recipients have options: Keep the computer, return it, or donate it to charity. Read Zheng's blog for his take on the arrangement.

I don't know any of the bloggers on Zheng's list except for Ed Bott. Ed worked here at PC World eons ago. I know Ed and he's an ethical, by-the-book, straight-arrow kind of guy. He has a different opinion.

Ed's bottom line is the same as mine: We can't be bought or influenced.

Dig This: Oh, mind reading is cool, even if it's from an animation.

[Rasputin]

Macworld Expo: This One's for PC Users Too

Here's the consumer electronics news for PC users at Macworld Expo: Apple isn't just about the Mac anymore. In fact, the company's two big announcements at today's keynote--the iPhone and the Apple TV--are going to be Windows-compatible right out of the gate.

In an immediate, cool-gadget sense, the iPhone may provide a significant improvement over today's amped-up cell phones. Apple TV, on the other hand, is the next logical step in integrating the digital-media universe that Apple has helped create with its iTunes Music Store and iLife applications. The best news is that neither will be exclusive to Mac users.

iPhone's Killer App
The biggest excitement was around the new iPhone, shipping in June. It's billed as a phone with an intuitive touch-screen interface (which Apple calls Multi-Touch technology), a calendar and contact manager, and an iPod that can accommodate wide-screen movies, TV shows, and photos. Shockingly devoid of buttons and a keyboard, its design is reminiscent of Palm's LifeDrive, except it includes a phone. And it's like Research in Motion's BlackBerry or the Palm Treo, except that it includes an iPod.

In typical Apple fashion, Jobs stated that the company is "reinventing the cell phone" and that the device is "five years ahead of any other phone." That means the iPhone had better be darn near perfect to gather a following--in short, Apple has to have done the cell phone interface better. So far, it's looking good: The proximity sensor, as one example, knows when your ear comes close to the phone and disables the touch screen to prevent accidental input from your face.

If the iPhone truly thrills consumers, they'll also notice the built-in 2-megapixel camera, the integrated Google Maps, and a new way of Web browsing using an iPhone version of Apple's Safari browser.

What's in a Name?
Before Macworld Expo this year, speculation held that the iPhone wouldn't have that name because Cisco Systems had trademarked it already. According to Reuters online, Cisco expected to reach an agreement with Apple today regarding the name. It isn't clear whether that means Apple will change the name of its product or whether Cisco will transfer the trademark to Apple. The companies had been in talks prior to the product's announcement.

More Ambiguous Relationships
The iPhone will operate on Cingular's EDGE data network based on the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) wireless platform. The exclusivity agreement between Apple and Cingular was ambiguously described as "multiyear."

"That's one of those terms of the contract that we mutually agreed not to discuss," says Cingular spokesperson Mark Siegel. Although some new phones are initially sold by just one carrier, many eventually end up being offered by multiple carriers. But Siegel says this deal is different. "In today's business environment, a multiyear commitment is a serious one, and obviously that shows that we have great faith in Apple and that Apple has great faith in us," he says.

Siegel also emphasizes that, contrary to prior speculation, this is not a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) arrangement, in which a company leases network access and brands the phone and the service as its own. Given the significance of the phone Apple was developing, "the only way we [Cingular] were going to achieve what we thought we could achieve with this extraordinary device was for it to be a full partnership," he says.

The iPhone will come in 4GB and 8GB configurations in June, and will cost $499 and $599 respectively. It supports 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless technologies, and will be available at Cingular and Apple retail stores.

[Rasputin]

Dell Urges Telecom Firms to Deliver Fiber-Optic Links

LAS VEGAS -- The missing pieces that will allow consumers to use their PCs as digital media hubs are fiber-based broadband links to the home and seamless integration of multiple devices, Dell Chairman Michael Dell said in his keynote address to attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show here on Tuesday.

"Customers say they want to use their PCs for digital home entertainment, but it really hasn't caught on because of two things: Broadband isn't where it needs to be for reliable performance, and the industry hasn't made it easy for devices to work together," Dell said.

To fix the bandwidth problem, Dell urged telecom companies to lay fiber-optic broadband Internet links to homes, something Verizon is offering through a pilot program in the United States, he said. And to improve device integration, Dell suggested that hardware vendors should take their inspiration from Sling Media, whose Slingbox enables users to share video or music content between different platforms.

Also at the show, Dell unveiled a Home Media Suite desktop PC that offers vast storage capacity and a 27-inch wide-screen display. The XPS 410 has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, a 1TB RAID storage array, a digital cable TV tuner, and Windows Vista. The Home Media Suite will launch in the United States this month, as soon as Microsoft releases the Vista OS.

Dell has plenty of competition in trying to reach customers interested in the convergence of TV and other media functions with those of a home PC. HP, which recently overtook Dell as the world's largest PC vendor, also launched a large-screen desktop with a TV tuner at the show.

Enviromental Plans
Michael Dell did not use his keynote to suggest new solutions for company problems such as delayed earnings reports due to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accounting investigation, or the loss of market share to HP.

Instead, he described business initiatives such as Dell Datasafe, a service to help customers migrate their data from current PCs to newly purchased computers by storing their data briefly on Dell's servers and then downloading it to the new machine. Dell also announced an environmental plan called "Plant a Tree for Me" that gives customers the option to donate an extra $2 when they buy a Dell notebook, or $6 when purchasing a desktop, to plant new trees that will absorb carbon dioxide, thus offsetting future greenhouse gas emissions. That service will launch in the United States in February and will be available worldwide by April.

Finally, Dell unveiled a gaming PC aimed at the world's 12.5 million players of massively multiplayer online games. The XPS 710 H2C features powerful processors and video cards whose heat is absorbed through two stages of cooling: Both a radiator-type liquid-to-air heat exchanger and a ceramic-based thermoelectric cooling module work to keep the PC's heat down. The system is now available worldwide for $5499.

[abadani69]

ده روز پس از آغاز ثبت سایت های اینترنتی و وبلاگ ها توسط وزارت ارشاد، ناظران رسانه ای از شکست این طرح سخن می گویند.روز گذشته خبرگزاری مهر تعداد سایت ها و وبلاگ های ثبت شده در ده روز گذشته در سایت ساماندهی را دو هزار سایت ذکر کرد و روزنامه کیهان نیز نوشت تاکنون 840 سایت حاضر شده اند در سایت معرفی شده از سوی معاونت مطبوعاتی وزارت ارشاد ثبت نام کنند.


به دنبال تصویب طرح ساماندهی سایت های اینترنتی در اوایل آذرماه گذشته توسط هیات دولت،دو هفته پیش معاونت مطبوعاتی وزارت ارشاد با انتشار اطلاعیه ای اعلام کرد ثبت سایت های اینترنتی و وبلاگ ها از روز یازدهم آذر در سایتی که این وزارتخانه از آن با عنوان "سایت ستاد ساماندهی سایت های اینترنتی" نامبرده بود،آغاز خواهد شد.

اما تنها ساعاتی پس از اعلام رسمی اجرای این طرح،هزاران وبلاگ نویس ایرانی با انتشار یادداشت هایی وزارت ارشاد و دولت را آماج حملات تند و اعتراض آمیز خود قرار دادند.
و گفته شد بمباران گوگلی بی سابقه ای در راه خواهد بود که نظر کاربران آن می توانست بيش از هر کاری نظر جهانيان را به وضعيت آزادی بيان در کشور جلب کند. همین اعتراضات سبب شد تا مقامات وزارت ارشاد که در روزهای نخست ترتیباتی برای ثبت وبلاگ ها در نظر گرفته بودند،بدون سر و صدا بخش مربوط به ثبت وبلاگ ها را حذف و اعلام کنند این ثبت فقط منحصر به سایت هایی است که از دومین اختصاصی استفاده می کنند و "ثبت وبلاگ هایی که از سرویس دهندگان وبلاگی استفاده می کنند اجباری نیست".

با این حال هنوز اعتراض وبلاگ نویسان به ایجاد محدودیت های دولتی برای سایت ها و وبلاگ ها ادامه دارد.گروهی از وبلاگ نویسان در روزهای اخیر با قرار دادن بنری[تیتر گردان] با عنوان"سایتم را ثبت نمی کنم" در وبلاگ های خود اعتراض به گسترش سانسور اینترنتی را اعلام کردند.

گروهی از وبلاگ نویسان نیز ضمن یادداشت هایی به افشاگری درباره قرار داشتن سرورهای "سایت ستاد ساماندهی سایت های اینترنتی" در امریکا و چین پرداختند.نکته مهمی که در صورت ثبت مشخصات صد ها هزار سایت و وبلاگ فارسی در آن، به معنای در اختیار قرار دادن یکباره اطلاعات سایت ها و وبلاگ های ثبت شده در اختیار یک موسسه خارجی است.

شکست در گام اول
در روزهای اولی که وزارت ارشاد کار ثبت سایت ها و وب لاگ ها را شروع کرده بود، ایمیل هایی برای چندین هزار وبلاگ و سایت ارسال شد که با کلمه عبور و رمز ورود توصيه می کردند که وب نگاران و سايت داران به اين عمل ساده که به منزله ثبت سایت و وبلاگ خود در سایت ساماندهی است اقدام کند.
گفته می شد که در روز اول و قبل از اين که پیام های هشدار دهنده به همه سایت ها و وب لاگ ها برسد، گروهی که نامه الکترونیکی را دریافت کرده بودند، برای پرهيز از خطرات جنبی اين کار، بدان پاسخ داده و عملا ثبت نام کرده بودند. اما با آغاز جريان آگاهی سازی که خبر می داد که دولت امکان چنین کاری را ندارد و بايد آماده بمبارانی جهانی باشد، اول نام نويسی ها قطع شد و بعد هم جلساتی در وزارت اطلاعات و مخابرات برپا شد. تا سرانجام روزنامه کیهان روز گذشته تعداد کل سایت ها و وبلاگ های ثبت شده در این طرح را 840 پایگاه اینترنتی اعلام کرد و نوشت:" 850 پايگاه اينترنتي در سايت ساماندهي ثبت شده اند كه از اين تعداد 361 وب سايت، 13 وبلاگ داراي دامنه [دومین] و 466 وبلاگ بدون دامنه [دومین] مي باشند".

خبرگزاری مهر نیز در خبر ویژه ای تعداد سایت ها و وبلاگ های ثبت شده را "دو هزار" اعلام کرد.این در حالی است که به غیر از چند صد هزار وبلاگی که به میزبانی سرویس دهندگان وبلاگ در داخل و خارج از ایران فعال هستند،چند صد هزار سایت فارسی دیگر نیز با دومین های مستقل فعال اند. به گفته علیرضا شیرازی مدیر سایت بلاگفا "در حال حاضر و براساس آمار سایت رسمی ثبت کننده دامنه های ایران (nic**** ) بیش از چهل هزار دامنه با پسوندهای مرتبط با ایران (****) به ثبت رسیده است".او همچنین گفته که"براساس گزارش سایت webhosting.info نیز بیش از شصت هزار سایت در شرکتهای میزبانی وب ایرانی به ثبت رسیده و فعالیت می کنند و البته به این تعداد باید هزاران سایت فارسی دیگر را نیز افزود که بنا به دلایلی همچون ترس از تحریم و عدم ذکر ایران در مشخصات سایت،استفاده از سرورهای اختصاصی و سایت های فارسی مدیریت شده توسط ایرانیان مقیم خارج از کشور در آمار فوق ذکر نشده است".به گفته شیرازی " بیش از صد و پنجاه هزار سایت فارسی یا ایرانی در حال حاضر فعال هستند و همچنین بیش از یک و نیم میلیون وبلاگ نیز در سرویسهای وبلاگ فارسی به ثبت رسیده است که چنین آماری میتواند حجم عملیات اجرایی این آیین نامه را نشان دهند".

کارشناسان معتقدند آمار 840 تایی روزنامه کیهان از سایت ها و وبلاگ های ثبت شده در طرح ساماندهی وزارت ارشاد،و حتا آمار دو هزارتایی خبرگزاری مهر از سایت های ثبت شده در طی ده روز گذشته خود حکایت از تحقق پیش بینی های همگانی درباره غیر ممکن بودن اجرای ثبت سایت ها و وبلاگ های فارسی توسط وزارت ارشاد و شکست آن دارد.

[Rasputin]

What's in the iPhone Name? Cisco Sues Apple

Cisco Systems sued Apple today to prevent it from using the name iPhone for the new smart phone that it introduced yesterday at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.

Cisco filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for Northern California seeking an injunction against Apple's using the name.

The name iPhone is a registered trademark of Linksys, a division of Cisco. Linksys picked up the iPhone name when it bought a company called Infogear Technology in 2000. Cisco's iPhones are telephone handsets designed for use on a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) network.

The iPhone has proved to be the most talked-about product at this year's Macworld, and its positive reception has sent Apple's stock surging over the past two days. The company's stock closed at $97 today, up nearly 5 percent for the day.

History
Apple and Cisco have been in negotiations for about two years over Apple's desire to license the iPhone trademark, according to Cisco spokesman John Noh. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld, Cisco had not yet received a signed trademark licensing agreement from Apple, though the two companies had been negotiating terms as recently as last Monday night.

Apple and Cisco have been in negotiations for about two years over Apple's desire to license the iPhone trademark, according to Cisco spokesman John Noh. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld, Cisco had not yet received a signed trademark licensing agreement from Apple, though the two companies had been negotiating terms as recently as last Monday night.

In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of worldwide iPod marketing, pointed out that Cisco's iPhone brand applies to a line of voice-over-IP products, whereas Apple's iPhone is a cell phone. "They're different products," Joswiak said.

Cisco seems uninclined to accept this interpretation, however. "Because they have been negotiating with us on licensing the trademark all this time, Apple is acknowledging that we own the name," said Noh.

"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name," said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel for Cisco.

"Today's iPhone is not tomorrow's iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone, and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand," Chandler said.

Branding
In December, Linksys introduced two VoIP handsets to its iPhone line, adding to the five others that the company already offered. The seven phones now constitute part of the Linksys family of products called iPhone.

One of Linksys's newest iPhones is the CIT400, a cordless phone with a base station that attaches directly via ethernet to a network and comes preloaded with VoIP software from eBay's Skype Internet telephony service. This phone allows users to make and receive Skype calls without having to turn on and use their computers.

[Rasputin]

Warner Solves Blu-ray, HD DVD War With Total HD

On Tuesday at CES, Warner Home Video made a splash with its announcement of the company's Total High-Def disc, a disc that will put an HD DVD-formatted movie on one side and a Blu-ray version on the other.

In true Hollywood fashion, this announcement was an orchestrated and visual event, right down to the coordinated flashes of red and blue--Warner's way of representing the competing factions. HD DVD was red (an outgrowth of the deep-burgundy border that surrounds HD DVD cases), while Blu-ray was assigned blue. Warner said its fellow Time Warner companies, New Line Entertainment and HBO, would also support Total HD. The company expects the disc to become available in the "back half of 2007."

Both formats use blue-laser diode technology to deliver greater capacity than standard-definition DVD, enabling the discs to store high-definition content. The two formats are locked in a battle to become the next-generation, high-definition replacement for DVD. Intel, Microsoft, Toshiba, and Universal Pictures are among the staunch backers of HD DVD; a consortium of major consumer electronics companies, including Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony, plus seven out of eight of the major film studios support Blu-ray.

One Disc to Rule Them All
The intention with Total HD is to remove the liability and confusion in the marketplace, and to drive consumers to adopt the high-def formats more quickly.

Ronald J. Sanders, president of Warner Home Video, noted that between the two formats, sales of more than 9 million high-def-capable devices were being projected by the end of 2007. That figure is well ahead of the adoption rate of DVD, widely regarded as the most successful consumer electronics format ever. With DVD, 1.3 million players were in the market by the second year of their availability.

"We know that consumers are hungry for high-def movies," said Sanders. Between sales projections from the HD DVD and Blu-ray camps, Sanders estimates that the potential revenue flowing to studios from disc sales could top $1 billion. "And that's just in the second year."

At Warner, he said, "we think of total content sold, regardless of format. Both are great technologies. [But there's] consumer confusion and hesitancy surrounding these formats." That confusion is causing many people to wait before choosing one format, or the other.

"The wait is over," Sanders told the audience with dramatic flair. "When you bring together red and blue, you get the best of both worlds, two great ideas on one incredible disc."

"A two-format marketplace is not ideal," he concedes. "We can't change the fact that the current multiple-format marketplace is there." But with Total HD, "you can get all of the content with none of the risk."

Good for Everyone
Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, notes that the Total HD disc is good for retailers (who only have to stock one disc), good for the studio (which only has to produce one disc), and ultimately, good for consumers. "Most importantly, it's much better for the customer. Unlike when confronted with the current two-format choice, almost half said they were more likely to buy hardware with this disc. It gives consumers security and choice. It gives them the security to know they won't be left with an obsolete library. It eliminates confusion and fear about choosing the wrong format."

The packaging unveiled at CES shows a split border, with the HD DVD red color along the spine side, and the Blu-ray blue color mirroring it on the other side.

New Disc Combines Specs
The new Total HD disc was created by Warner Bros., but the company says that creating the disc wouldn't cost other studios anything. If a disc manufacturer and replicator has both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc production lines, it can produce a Total HD disc.

Warner declined to discuss the production costs of the disc, though it acknowledged that they were incrementally higher. "We're still working out the pricing," said Sanders. "We aren't announcing that here. It won't be materially more. We know what the manufacturing cost components are, and they won't be much more than regular HD discs." Sanders also noted that Warner's own research indicated that consumers were willing to pay a little more for the peace of mind of knowing the disc will play on whichever type of player they buy.

[Rasputin]

CES 2007 Picks and Pans

From the PC World team members who spent the week on Show Patrol in Las Vegas, here is our report on the great, the good, the bad, and the horrible. We saw sensational servers, delicate e-dragonflies, combo HD players (at last!), odd wrist cameras, tech for your car, tech for your teeth, and more at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show.

Putting It All Together
Supereasy PC-to-PC Transfers: I got home, and my wireless network was down--and I don't mean just a little depressed. I had to move files and images from my notebook to my desktop. But no wireless fiddling for me: I connected the two computers with The Tornado--a CD-size gadget with a retractable USB cable. In 3 seconds, I was transferring files with no software, device drivers, or hassles. It costs $60 and is available now. --Steve Bass

Welcome to the Social: Imagine a salad of MySpace, YouTube, Digg, and Amazon's Marketplace tossed lightly in a vinaigrette, and you have eSnips.com. Here people can share in their mutual obsessions while posting and/or selling their art, music, photos, or what-have-you. The interface is terrific and the integration among different communities (pets, poetry, the paranormal) is very well done. Best of all, spammers and scammers have yet to discover the Israel-based eSnips--though if it continues to grow (now at 1.2 million users and climbing, according to CEO Yael Elish), they surely will. --Dan Tynan

Your Content, Everywhere: Multiple paths to networking your content--this was an underlying theme of the show. Be it Microsoft's Windows Home Server, HP's MediaSmart Server, or any of a slew of networkable hard drives and multidisk arrays, this was, clearly, the year of the server. --Melissa J. Perenson

Best of Both Worlds, Part 1: LG Electronics' Super Multi Blue initiative debuted this week. Lest we forget this is the company that led the way to getting the rest of the industry behind the one-drive-does-them-all concept on the DVD side of the equation, LG's announcement of its BH100 player, due out in February, and its corresponding data drive, the GGW-H10N, due out in April, has changed the landscape of the Blu-ray/HD DVD turf war. --Melissa J. Perenson

Best of Both Worlds, Part 2: TiVo and Comcast, finally together. Fellow Comcast cable subscribers, need I say more? --Melissa J. Perenson

Simple Is Best: I love useful technology I can understand in 10 seconds, and Belkin's USBTV fits that bill perfectly. This product will let you drag and drop video onto a USB drive and--with a very simple dock connected to the TV--play it without any other fuss. Great idea, simple execution. That's the ticket. --Ramon G. McLeod

Say Cheese: Based on the number of digital photo frames I saw at the show, I think the industry is forecasting this year to be a big one for people to integrate this gadget into their home decor. Pandigital's new line of photo frames looked particularly enticing; the ones I saw had sleek designs, great image quality, and a ton of functionality

[Rasputin]

Digital Gear: Unique Gadgets at CES

Home-entertainment devices may have grabbed the spotlight at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but other types of products screamed for attention as well.

Philips introduced two slim cordless handsets: the sleek DECT ID9371B, which resembles a cell phone; and the VoIP841, which handles both land-line and Internet calls. Trying to revive the boom-box craze of the 1980s, Lifepop flashed Atom Amp, a series of fashionable bags and cases equipped with built-in speakers. Herman Miller lit up the show floor with its eco-friendly and energy-saving Leaf LED Personal tabletop light. But one gadget topped them all: a toilet paper-dispensing iPod dock from Atech Flash Technology.

iPod Dock and Toilet Paper Dispenser
Atech's iCarta Stereo Dock for iPod With Bath Tissue Holder is a wall-mounted toilet paper holder with built-in speakers and an iPod dock. This multitasking breakthrough lets you broadcast iPod music throughout your bathroom and draw from a roll of "bath tissue" as needed.

The fixture comes with four water-resistant speakers that, according to the company, "deliver exceptional clarity and high-quality sound," even as the unit's dock recharges the iPod. Presumably the iCarta does an impressive job of dispensing toilet paper, as well. Froogle.com lists it as being available for between $80 and $103 from retailers across the United States.

Philips's Cordless Handsets
Many imitators are likely to crib the style and innovative features of Philips's DECT ID9371B, announced at CES. Designed like a cell phone, this slim cordless handset has a 65,000-color screen and stores 250 names and numbers in its phone book. Hidden inside the device is an answering machine that holds 15 minutes of voicemail messages. Users can export phone book entries from a cell phone's SIM card to the cordless handset. The phone is slated to ship with a $180 price tag in the second quarter of the year.

Also notable for its svelte design is Philips's new VoIP841 cordless handset, which can make both land-line and Internet calls via Skype's Voice-over-IP service without requiring a PC. You plug the ethernet cable into the base station at one end and your router at the other, and voila--the device is ready to make Skype calls.

The VoIP841 doesn't support Wi-Fi; instead, it uses DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) wireless technology, which cordless phones in Europe commonly use, to communicate with the base station. It stores 500 Skype contacts and supports free Skype-to-Skype calls. Another snazzy feature is the handset's ability to emit different ringtones to signal whether a call is coming from a land line or from Skype. Like the DECT ID9371B, the VoIP841 has a 65,000-color display. Philips says that the phone should become available for $199.

Mod Boom Box
What's better than a boom box? A purse or bag with built-in speakers--for example, one of Lifepop's Atom Amp portable mini speaker bags and cases. Targeting customers with portable audio players and mobile phones that play MP3 audio files, the bags have tiny external speakers that deliver 1400 milliwatts of sound. Plug the MP3 player or mobile phone into the bag's headphone jack port, play a song, and get ready to share the sound with the outside world via the bag's speakers.

The smallest Atom Amp case is the $25 Mini Boom Boom (which looks like a small boom box) for cell phones and portable music players. "It's a great portable thing--it's fun, it's cool," said Jason Entner, founder and CEO of Lifepop.

Atom Amps are also available in the forms of a clutch-style purse ($49), messenger bags ($50 to $75), and a backpack ($40). The line is slated to ship in the United States in April.

Sturdy Laptop Case With Speakers
Speaking of speakers, G-Tech announced at CES its Secure Sound Laptop Sleeve, a water-resistant laptop bag with virtually invisible embedded speakers. The two 35-watt NXT PLC speakers nestle in the bag's ethylene-vinyl acetate foam cover, which is as effective as a hard-shell cover at protecting a laptop from falls, according to Mark Treger, G-Tech's vice president of sales and marketing.

The speakers can run for up to 8 hours on three AAA batteries, or they can draw power from a laptop connected via a USB port in the battery pack, Treger said. The same hookup recharges batteries.

The Sleeve's speakers are useful for presentations, too. Plug the laptop into the case, and the speakers generate better sound than most notebook PCs could produce on their own. Users have the option of playing music from a portable audio device through the speakers, as well.

The cases come in two sizes to accommodate 15-inch and 17-inch laptops (partitions are available to handle smaller laptops). Secure Sound Laptop Sleeves also have pockets for iPods, flash memory cards, and other accessories.

Priced at between $39 and $49, the cases are slated to ship soon in the United States, Australia, and Europe, Treger said.

Herman Miller's Leaf
Herman Miller's Leaf Personal LED (light-emitting diode) tabletop light drew kudos at CES for its environmentally friendly, energy-efficient design. The lamp contains 20 LEDs that transmit colors ranging from light blue to light yellow. It can be used as a reading light or as a task light for working on a computer, among other applications, according to Kelli Gierz, product manager at Herman Miller. It is not, however, meant to light up an entire room, Gierz added.

The light dims or brightens when you touch the base of the lamp, explained Susan Koole, corporate communications associate at Herman Miller. Operating at a power of between 8 and 9 watts--some 40 percent below the energy consumption level of a 13-watt compact fluorescent light--it has a lifespan of between 60,000 and 100,000 hours, Koole said. Its deployment of LED technology could reduce a user's electricity bill, Gierz said.

The Leaf light is cool for other reasons as well: It is composed in part of recycled material, is itself 95 percent recyclable, according to Koole, and generates light with minimal waste. "You can use a small battery to create a large amount of light," Gierz noted, and that saves resources.

But while the Leaf may save users money in the long run, you'll have to shell out $499 to $540 (depending on the model) to buy it. The lamp is already shipping in the United States and should become available worldwide soon, Koole said. You can find more information about the product at Herman Miller's Web site.

[Rasputin]

Greenpeace Gives Apple an F

Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace is using Macworld Expo in San Francisco to draw attention to Apple's use of toxic chemicals in its products. The organization also hopes that Apple will expand its recycling efforts globally. The group has established a Web site, Greenmyapple.org, to call attention to what it perceives as Apple's shortcomings.

At a press conference Monday, Greenpeace legislative director Rick Hind explained that Apple ranks at the bottom of a list of 14 international cell phone and computer companies, according to Greenpeace's own "Guide to Greener Electronics." The group has also protested outside the Moscone Center, where the Expo is held, throughout the week.

Commitment to Change Questioned
The Guide ranks companies on a score of 1 to 10 based on each business's commitment to eliminate hazardous substances in its products and its position on recycling products once they become obsolete. Apple received a mark of 2.7 out of 10, lagging behind Toshiba, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony, Lenovo, Acer, HP, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Dell, and Nokia. While Nokia and computer maker Dell ranked at the top of the list, both of them were in the 7 range.

"Nobody is getting an A in this class," Hind said. "We just don't think that Apple should be getting an F."

Apple took issue with Greenpeace's claims.

"We disagree with Greenpeace's rating and the criteria they chose," an Apple spokesperson said. "Apple has a strong environmental track record and has led the industry in restricting and banning toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium, as well as many [brominated flame retardants]. We have also completely eliminated CRT monitors, which contain lead, from our product line. Apple desktops, notebooks, and displays each score best in class in the new EPA ranking system EPEAT, which uses international standards set by IEEE."

Apple has posted a Web page with information on its efforts to protect natural resources, and how that factors into its product design, manufacturing, energy efficiency, and recycling efforts.

Apple and other computer makers are required by laws in the United States and Europe to offer consumer recycling programs for their equipment, but such laws do not exist worldwide. Greenpeace believes that Apple should voluntarily implement a worldwide recycling program so that users anywhere can return iPods and Macs that have broken or become obsolete.

"The good news is that all of these companies agree that things should change," said Hind. "But 13 of the 14 top companies have a better score."

Hazardous Materials
Greenpeace is also concerned over Apple's use of toxic compounds in the manufacture of its equipment, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a form of plastic commonly found in computer cables and housings. Also at issue is Apple's use of brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

"We recently tested major brands of computers to find BFRs and PVC," said Greenpeace toxics campaigner Martin Hojsik. "Tests found that the MacBook Pro scored highest for brominated flame retardant."

Greenpeace believes that toxic chemicals including BFRs, PVC, lead, and other materials can't be recycled safely, especially when much of the work is being done by low-wage workers operating in unsafe conditions in China and third-world countries, according to Greenpeace China toxics campaigner Yihua Yue. She illustrated the point using photographs of Chinese children standing before piles of electronic waste--e-waste--holding Apple-branded products like keyboards.

A More Receptive Audience
So far, Apple is the only company to merit a dedicated Web site from Greenpeace to encourage the improvement of its electronic waste disposal and use of hazardous chemicals. When asked why, Hind explained that Greenpeace believes users of Macintosh computers and iPods may be more receptive to the group's message of environmental conservation.

So far, said Hind, it appears to be working: He said that the Greenmyapple.com Web site has attracted more visitors than any other Greenpeace Web site--more than half a million users since it was launched.

"If Apple does not become a leader in this area, the industry will not become as green as quickly. They're conspicuously absent," he said.

Symbolically Greening the Apple Store
Greenpeace began the week with a protest outside of Apple's downtown San Francisco store, located on Stockton Street. The company projected a large green-filtered floodlight on the illuminated Apple logo outside the building, and projected a video recording highlighting toxic technology issues on an adjacent building as well.

While the Greenpeace spokespeople agree that legislation such as the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) guidelines and other legislative efforts can help, the group doesn't want to wait for the world's governments to pass legislation compelling businesses to comply.

"What we want to emphasize in this campaign is that this is purely a corporate responsibility," said Greenpeace toxics campaigner Zeni Alhajj.

[Rasputin]

Investigator Charged in HP Scandal Pleads Guilty

SAN FRANCISCO -- Private investigator Bryan Wagner pleaded guilty today to two charges in federal court in San Jose, California, and agreed to cooperate with federal officials investigating the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal.

At a 25-minute hearing in Federal District Court, Wagner pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of aggravated identity theft. Federal District Judge Jeremy Fogel accepted the plea agreement and set sentencing for June 20.

"Today, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California has secured the first conviction in the Hewlett-Packard pretexting investigation," Luke Macaulay, a spokesman for the office, told reporters after the hearing. "Mr. Wagner today admitted to using fraud and deceit by misrepresenting himself and collecting the personal telephone records of (individuals) without their knowledge or authorization."

Wagner, who was officially charged January 10, has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors who continue to investigate the scandal, Macaulay said. It erupted after HP conducted an investigation in 2005 and 2006 to identify who on the HP board was leaking news of board deliberations to the media.

HP hired a Boston private investigative firm, Security Outsourcing Solutions, which in turn hired Action Research Group, of Melbourne, Florida. Action Research, in turn, hired Wagner, 29, of Littleton, Colorado, to procure the phone calling records of targets of the investigation, including reporters and their family members, and HP board members and employees and their family members.

Background
Wagner was given the Social Security numbers and other personal information about the targets and used it to pose as those people in obtaining their phone records, a practice called "pretexting," said Wagner's attorney, Stephen Nataril.

"He was your classic dupe," Nataril told reporters. "I think the private investigators who asked him to get this information knew that it wasn't legal and thought they'd pass the buck one or two more times down to somebody else and give them the brief assurance that 'Sure it's okay. We had our lawyers look at it, so go ahead and get that information'."

Wagner still faces state felony charges in California. Also facing state charges are former HP board chairman Patricia Dunn, former HP legal counsel Kevin Hunsaker, Ronald R. DeLia, of Security Outsourcing Solutions and Matthew DePante, manager of Action Research Group. Dunn and Hunsaker were forced out of their HP posts because of the scandal.

Macaulay declined to say when further federal charges can be expected and against whom.