Posted 07/03/2009 at 02:58:29pm

Taiwanese manufacturers might have positioned themselves to begin shipping SuperSpeed USB (aka USB 3.0) before the curtain falls on the year 2009, according to the July issue Nikkei Electronics Asia. The magazine believes that it was quite evident from the various prototypes on display at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference held in Tokyo May 20-21, 2009 that the commercial rollout of the next-gen USB interface in PCs is nigh.

Japanese company NEC Electronics Corp shipped samples of the first USB 3.0 host controller in early June and expects to churn out a million every month beginning this September. The first devices based on the interface will most certainly be external hard disk drives, with more exciting applications like hd video streaming expected to follow later.

Posted 07/03/2009 at 09:12:10am

Doug Freedman, an analyst for Broadpoint AmTech, has revealed to Cnet that early production units of ultra-thin laptops, which are being made out of plastic, are fissuring due to design flaws. He gleaned this information from his discussions with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs).

Freedman believes manufacturers will have to ultimately “go with a metal case” to achieve that ultra-thin form factor they are after. However, the use of metal cases will make ultra-thin notebooks costlier.

A reference to Intel’s CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) technology – meant for ultra-thin notebooks - in Freedman’s report elucidating the design issues prompted Intel to clarify that the “case design issues reported to be found by an ODM, not consumers, in early production units for ultra-thin laptops have nothing to do with Intel processors whatsoever.”

Freedman had said that some manufacturers are more interested in manufacturing 11-inch and 12-inch netbooks with the Atom processor rather than ultra-thin notebooks with Intel’s CULV technology.

Posted 07/02/2009 at 08:50:56am

Cablevision Systems, the 5th largest cable provider in the US, has endured a long legal battle against leading American TV programmers and providers, but now that its legal woes have finally ended, the company has the Supreme Court’s sanction to launch its network DVR system.

A person using the network DVR would be able to record programs without a dedicated, physical DVR box as the programs would be stored on a server maintained by Cablevision. Cablevision had first announced the cloud-enabled technology in 2006, however, it was soon beset and dragged to court by TV programmers and providers. Cablevision is going to roll out a limited preview of the service this summer.

Posted 07/01/2009 at 09:19:38am

Last week, Google rolled out a native development kit for Android developers. Developers can now create Android apps using native-code languages such as C and C++. Prior to the release of the Android Native Development Kit, applications for the platform could only be written in Java and run using Google’s Dalvik Java virtual machine.

The NDK has elicited some interest among software developers, with Mozilla being the most prominent of the lot. Mozilla is now giving serious thought to bringing Fennec, the mobile version of its Firefox web browser, to the Android platform.

"Developers are taking a look at the NDK to see if it provides the capabilities we need to bring Fennec to Android. If it's possible, I think our community would be interested in doing it, because Android will be appearing on more smartphones with the capabilities to provide a good browsing experience," Mozilla’s VP of mobile Jay Sullivan said.

Although running software natively can aid performance, there are other factors to offset that advantage. "Your application will be more complicated, have reduced compatibility, have no access to framework APIs, and be harder to debug,” Android engineer David Turner warned in a blog post announcing the release of the NDK.

Posted 07/01/2009 at 08:30:54am

Asustek seems to have grown tired of the 7-inch and 8.9-inch Eee PCs in its inventory. Perhaps that is why it has decided to slash the prices of the said netbooks. The 7-inch Eee PCs are now available for a meager sum of $153 in Taiwan. The 8.9-inch Eee PC 900A has had its price trimmed down to $219 in China. Benson Lin, president of Asustek’s Asia Pacific division, had earlier this year told Digitimes that the company would completely phase out its 8.9-inch Eee PC netbooks in 2009.

Posted 06/30/2009 at 06:06:56pm

Taiwan-based Shuttle Inc. is mulling an entry into the notebook market, if the grapevine is to be believed. The rumor gained currency after Elitegroup Computer Systems' (ECS') ex-president of notebook business moved to Shuttle as its new president. However, the company has tried to downplay the rumor by contending that it is a bit farfetched to jump to conclusions based on the professional background of its new president. Shuttle is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of motherboards. Its product portfolio also boasts an assortment of small form factor computers and barebones.