News Tech Tunnel

Asustek Computer, one of the world’s largest makers of personal computers and the biggest maker of mainboards, plans to lift its freeze on hiring because of improving market conditions, a media report claims citing sources with knowledge of the matter. Even though the number of positions Asus plans to fill does not seem to be high, the fact that a large company actually has unbanned hiring seems to be quite positive in general.

In response to warming market conditions, Asustek has lifted a freeze on hiring that has been in effect since the end of 2008, reports DigiTimes web-site. Various departments are set to hire additional personnel, including the company’s handheld business groups, graphics card, notebook and handheld device businesses also require additional personnel. Moreover, it is reported that Asus is in short of engineers for its communications business, as well as sales and marketing personnel.

Jonney Shih, the chairman of Asustek Computer, is reportedly very enthusiastic about the company’s sales results in the third quarter of 2009 and expects a major uptick in demand for PCs in the following quarters.

According to DigiTimes, Asus will start hiring by the end of October or early November, and the firm will initiate interviewing for a total of more than 70 job openings. Even though 70 new positions at one of the globe’s largest IT companies may not seem that significant, the very fact that Asustek is ending its hiring freeze seems to be a good news in general.

Asustek Computer has reportedly confirmed the plans.

Tags: ASUS, Business

Dual-core central processing units (CPUs) were considered a breakthrough in the personal computer industry back in 2005. In 2010, dual-core chips, albeit powered by processors with different micro-architecture, are set to enter the market of mobile phones, according to ARM, a leading developer of processors for portable electronics.

“We don’t need silly GHz speeds. With our dual-core A9, we can get two times the performance, without the speed draining the battery, so by the time you get home your phone is dead,” said Rob Coombs, director of mobile solutions for ARM, in an interview with TechRadar web-site.

Mr. Coombs added that ARM hopes that actual implementers would introduce dual-core processors for mobile phones sometime in 2010, but still, delays to 2011 were possible.

Dual-core processors will not only increase overall performance of mobile devices, but will enable new functionality, for example, speech recognition. In addition, multi-core chips will eventually allow mobile phones to do tasks like running productivity or even multimedia applications (when plugged to larger screen and keyboard).

“They will allow user interfaces to be a bit more reactive, with some cool and weird options. For instance, if future mobiles rely on speech recognition, which is a processor hogging application, we can deal with that,” added Mr. Coombs.

Tags: ARM

An Indian vendor uses her mobile phone to take customers orders at a wholesale market on the outskirts of Hyderabad in April 2009. India said Saturday a long-delayed auction of radio bandwidth for third generation (3G) telecommunications services will start in January and will be open to foreign firms.

India said Saturday a long-delayed auction of radio bandwidth for third generation (3G) telecommunications services will start in January and will be open to foreign firms.

The auction will start January 14, 2010 with bids to be submitted by December 21, the Department of Telecommunications said in an announcement posted on its website, adding that the time schedule could be revised.

The auction of 3G radio spectrum for mobile services will put India’s cellular market — the fastest growing in the world — on track for a new level of wireless telephony, experts say.

The government has said it aims to raise 250 billion rupees (5.38 billion dollars) from the sale of 3G bandwidth that would allow high-speed Internet, video downloads and other sophisticated services on cellular telephones.

The government hopes to use the money raised from the auction to help plug a yawning fiscal deficit.

“The government of India is keen that potential new entrants to the Indian telecommunications sector, as well as existing operators, should be encouraged to take part in the auctions,” the ministry statement said.

“Interested foreign entities are allowed to participate in the auctions directly and apply for licences subsequently.”

India has said it aims to sell four 3G licences and three broadband wireless access licences in 20 of the 22 telecom zones.

It does not have available spectrum to auction in the other two zones.

© 2009 AFP

US telecom firm Verizon launched a high-definition movie channel on Friday, letting subscribers watch films on-demand on televisions or on the Internet.

US telecom firm Verizon launched a high-definition movie channel on Friday, letting subscribers watch films on-demand on televisions or on the Internet.

EPIX debuts on Verizon’s FiOS TV and online at epixhd.com free of charge this weekend, but will cost about 10 dollars monthly thereafter, according to Verizon.

“We’re taking the lead in delivering the richest and best entertainment to movie-lovers, on whatever platform they choose,” Verizon vice president of content strategy and acquisition Terry Denson said in a release.

EPIX is a joint venture involving Viacom Inc., its Paramount Pictures unit, and film studios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate.

The channel will showcase recent releases from Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate, along with thousands of classic films.

© 2009 AFP

Chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp. said in an interview that although Nvidia is known for its graphics processing units (GPUs), Nvidia is a software company. While the claims seems to be a little strange, it outlines the direction that Nvidia plans to invest in: software applications that leverage take advantage of Nvidia’s chips and offer exclusive capabilities.

“Nvidia is a software company, [software] will be what will drive our growth. We just don’t write the application, but we create all the core technology, we create more core technology for visual computing than any other company in the world. […] What you are and how you make money doesn’t have to be the same. […] Apple is a software company but they make money by selling hardware. […] Nvidia is an integrated complete visual computing and parallel computing solution technology company,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia, in an interview with CHW web-site.

At present Nvidia offers GeForce graphics processor that support rather traditional features like those supported by DirectX, OpenGL, OpenCL, etc application programming interfaces. However, in addition Nvidia also offers rather exclusive features, such as Stereo 3D Vision and PhysX for gamers as well as CUDA-exclusive applications for consumers. Although neither of the technologies seem to have become truly important in general, Nvidia does hope that going forward its exclusive features will drive consumers towards GeForce-branded products.

It is rather noteworthy that previously Mr. Huang has always pointed that it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to create a leading-edge graphics processing unit and only Nvidia was capable of investing that large sum of money.

At present Nvidia is mostly known for its GeForce graphics cards for gamers as well as Quadro graphics cards for professionals. However, the company is working hard to promotes its Tesla products among scientists or high-performance computing professionals as well as Tegra devices among users of portable consumer electronics. Apparently, according to Mr. Huang, Nvidia’s strategy is to offer exclusive software features for those markets as well.

“In the future, software is the most important thing; anyone can make chips, it is really expensive, but anyone can do it. The hard part is to inspire people to create amazing things. We have software, systems, architecture, tools, compilers, and languages, whatever it takes…,” said Mr. Huang.

Tags: Nvidia, Geforce, Quadro, Tesla, PhysX, Tegra

The general manager of Nintendo’s entertainment analysis and development department said in an interview that the company had no concrete plans for the next-generation video game console. However, what is, apparently, more important for Nintendo is to make its gaming devices more affordable, quite a surprising claim.

“While we don’t have any concrete plans for what we’ll be doing with hardware in the future, what I can say is that, my guess is that because we found [motion sensing] interface to be so interesting, I think it would be likely that we would try to make that same functionality perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient,” said Shigeru Miyamoto in an interview with PopularMechanics web-site.

Obviously, one could imagine that Nintendo plans to create another Wii, with quite outdated graphics and lack of support of modern video features like Blu-ray or high-definition video downloads, in order to appeal to very massive amount of consumer. However, it should be kept in mind that those customers, who buy game consoles for the cost of a couple of titles will hardly acquire many additional games later on. Therefore, for console makers it makes hardly any sense to produce extremely cheap machines.

At present Nintendo Wii is the leading console in terms of sales in the current generation not because of the price, but because of innovative motion-sensing game controller as well as availability of video-games. It is crucial for Nintendo to maintain the lead, which means that the firm will hardly decide to create an ultra-cheap system, but will try to improve experience of end-users, who bought the Wii, in its next-generation product.

Tags: Nintendo, Wii

Asustek Computer, one of the world’s leading makers of notebooks, plans to become the world’s third largest notebook suppliers by 2011, the company’s chief executive officer is reported to have said.

Chief executive officer of Asustek Compute, Jerry Shen (C.L. Shen) said that the company’s goal was to become the world`s third largest notebook brand by 2011, to trail Hewlett Packard and Acer Group, reports Taiwan Economic News. In order to reach the goal, the company has to ship much more than 15 million notebooks in 2010, hence Asus will only be able to pretend to become the world’s No. 4 notebook brand.

While Asus-branded notebooks are well-known among technology enthusiasts and at many markets, mainstream consumers still have to meet Asus. Even though many customers know Acer, Dell, HP and Fujitsu, Asus, despite of being on the market for nearly a decade, is still considered to be a fairly new brand.

In order to attract attention to the trademark, Asustek Computer has released numerous premium notebooks, including a family of laptops made of bamboo as well as a line of Lamborghini-branded notebooks. Still, Asus is mostly known for its Eee-branded consumer-oriented devices. Asus still has a lot of work to do.

Tags: ASUS, Eee, Business

Western Digital, a leading maker of hard disk drives that recently acquired a maker of flash-based drives, said that it would boost investments into creation of more advanced solid-state drives (SSDs).

“Our current spending reflects increased investments in technological advancements, new products and programs, and includes our recently acquired SSD business,” said Tim Leyden, chief financial officer of WD during the most-recent conference call with financial analysts.

Back in March Western Digital announced that it acquired SiliconSystems, a supplier of solid-state drives (SSDs) for the embedded systems market, for $65 million. WD in June released its first own-brand solid-state drive called SiliconDrive III, which was aimed at enterprise user.

Western Digital’s rival Seagate Technologies also started to ship its SSDs designed for enterprise users. Meanwhile, suppliers of flash-based products, such as SanDisk Corp., claims that flash-based storage will not go mainstream until 2011 – 2012 timeframe.

Western Digital this week reported revenue of $2.2 billion, record hard drive shipments of 44.1 million units and net income of $288 million, or $1.25 per share, for its first fiscal quarter ended October 2, 2009. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $2.1 billion, unit shipments of 39.4 million, and net income of $211 million. The company generated $434 million in cash from operations during the first quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of $2.1 billion.

“For the second consecutive quarter, demand for hard drives was stronger than expected as the positive industry conditions that materialized in the June quarter continued throughout the September quarter. We believe this demand is being driven primarily by consumers as a result of the growing social media phenomenon. This is creating demand in mobile and desktop PCs, branded products and enterprise storage. Hard drive inventories remain at historically low levels, reflecting industry discipline in managing supply and demand,” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer.

Tags: WD, SSD, Flash

A Kashmiri pedestrian speaks on a cellular telephone in Srinagar on October 14, 2009. India banned pre-paid mobile telephones in Kashmir on Friday, state television reported, following concerns that militants were using them to trigger bombs and hide their identities.

India banned pre-paid mobile telephones in Kashmir on Friday, state television reported, following concerns that militants were using them to trigger bombs and hide their identities.

Mobile phones were launched in Kashmir only in 2003 after security agencies gave the go-ahead, but pre-paid versions are suspected to have been used in attacks since.

Pre-paid phones — phones that come with a set number of minutes charged on them — are easier to buy than their post-paid equivalents.

Post-paid — mobiles paid on a monthly basis — can only be bought after a series of security checks and official registration of personal details and passport photographs.

“All pre-paid mobile connections will stop functioning from November 1 after the home ministry’s order in this regard,” India’s state-owned television Doordarshan announced Friday.

India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram during his trip to Kashmir this month had raised the possibility that pre-paid mobile telephones might be banned in the disputed region as “they were prone to misuse.”

He said there was “a vast difference from the security point of view” between pre-paid mobiles, which can be bought without detailed identification, and contract-paid mobiles.

Kashmir’s insurgency against rule from New Delhi has left more than 47,000 people dead by official count, though separatists put the toll at between 80,000 and 100,000.

The region is divided between Pakistani and Indian zones, but both countries claim it in whole and have fought two wars over it.

© 2009 AFP

Microsoft Windows 7 is here and available for purchase, but even though Windows Vista can be annoying in some cases, tech support experts do not recommend to upgrade to the novelty straight away. Microsoft will find a way to make its new operating system even better in several months time and it may not make a lot of sense to cope with potential problems just now.

Rescuecom, a well-known tech-support firm, has presented five reasons why consumers should not install Windows 7 right now, but rather wait for a couple of months.

1. Let Microsoft work out the bugs. Microsoft’s help forums are already flooded with questions and complaints from users having installation problems. It is always safer to wait for the first service pack to work out any glitches.

“There’s no reason for you and your PC to be the guinea pig when you have other options. Failed OS installations can lose your data or leave your PC inoperable, requiring computer repair or at worst data recovery,” said Josh Kaplan, president of Rescuecom.

2. Upgrading has its risks. The chances of complications are always greater when you upgrade your existing PC with a new OS.

“There is a chance that existing software won’t interface seamlessly. It may be a better idea to wait until you need to get a new PC that comes preloaded with the new OS. In addition, upgrading your existing PC without performing a complete backup can lead to data loss and very expensive data recovery,” explained Mr. Kaplan.

3. Drivers can be an issue. The smart move is to wait for hardware manufacturers to come out with drivers designed for Windows 7.

“While the system is made to be compatible with the same hardware and software as Vista, there are always exceptions. It’s not always just a simple computer repair to get everything working tougher. If your PC is the exception, the last thing you need is downtime and lost productivity. It’s safer to wait for the patches and new drivers to be released,” noted the head of Rescuecom.

4. Is Windows 7 really a good fit? Will Windows 7 really benefit you?

“Microsoft has put millions of dollars into marketing Windows 7. No wonder – computer technology has never been more competitive, and the company has a lot riding on this product. This is a totally redesigned OS, and there will be a learning curve in the beginning. That curve will affect you, your employees, IT techs, and customers – everybody in the chain of use. So why not wait until the knowledge base is solid and you can easily get the computer repair help you need when you finally do make the leap?” asked the tech support expert.

5. $150 is $150. A Windows 7 family pack is about $150 right now, but will it be a good investment?

“Given the current economy, is that really a necessary expense right now? Moreover, why put yourself at risk for potential data loss and data recovery expense, or other possible hardware and software upgrade requirements?” asked Mr. Kaplan.

It is rather clear that Windows 7 does have a number of advantages over Windows Vista. However, it is not evident that those advantages truly improve productivity and enable completely new experience. All in all, one should understand at least one thing before upgrading: the reasons for this upgrade.

“In these tough economic times, every expenditure should be strategic and give you the best bang for your buck. Our business philosophy is to work closely in partnership with our customers for long-term PC solutions that will avoid costly computer repair. Helping them make savvy buying decisions is just part of smart ongoing computer use and maintenance,” said Mr. Kaplan.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Rescuecom