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Sony has acquired Gracenote, a company that provides tools for identifying digital media, for $260 million.

Sony, which announced the deal Tuesday, said it will allow Gracenote to operate as a standalone business and that it intends to use Gracenote’s technology to “enhance and accelerate its own digital content, service, and device initiatives.”

Gracenote’s senior management is expected to stay with the company. Sony said in a statement that the deal is expected to be finalized late next month.

Gracenote has amassed a database of audio files that content owners can use to track their copyright content. Customers include iTunes, Yahoo Music, and AOL.

(Credit: Xerox)
Phaser 3250DN
$350 Single function monolaser printer for small workgroups Built-in autoduplexer PostScript 3 and PCL 6 compatible Network ready

While none of these new printers include built-in wireless, a feature that’s been growing in popularity (Xerox sells a separate wireless network adapter for the 3600 series), we’re still excited to get a few of these MFPs into the lab for some heavy-duty testing. Let’s take a peek at some of the models you’ll be seeing soon:

(Credit: Xerox)
Phaser 3600DN
$750 Network ready monolaser printer Optional high-capacity paper trays Autodocument paper feeder 128 MB expandable memory

(Credit: Xerox)
Phaser 3100$350 Multifunction laser printer with unique ID copy OCR scanning Full QWERTY keyboard

Xerox officially added five new models to its line of Phaser laser printers today, and I had a chance to speak with a product manager over at Xerox to get the scoop on the new product offering (Phaser 3100, 3250, 3635, 3600, and 5500).

Both Dell and HP have extended the warranty on affected machines by one year.

Owners of 15 Dell laptop computers are affected, including models in the Inspiron, Latitude, Precision, Vostro, and XPS lines. Dell owners should read NVIDIA GPU Update: Dell to Offer Limited Warranty Enhancement to All Affected Customers Worldwide.

A very different perspective on the BIOS update is offered by Charlie Demerjian in The INQUIRER:

Today, the Wall Street Journal had a story about dissatisfaction with the way Nvidia has dealt with this issue, Chip Problems Haunt Nvidia, PC Makers. The article notes that “Nvidia hasn’t recalled the affected chips or identified which models have problems.”
Nvidia’s failure to publicly identify the problematic hardware, strikes me as inexcusable. According to The INQUIRER, All Nvidia G84 and G86s are bad.

Are You Affected?

Last month Nvidia disclosed that due to a manufacturing flaw, some of their laptop computer graphics processors and chipsets are overheating and failing. This is a brief summary of the story for those that missed it.

And, of course, the most important advice of all, backup your important files to some place outside your computer. Locally resident backups on an external hard disk or a USB flash drive are a great starting point.

Some motherboards have thermometers for measuring and reporting the temperature. Try to contact the hardware vendor to see if they offer software that you can use to watch the internal temperature. I use the free HD Tune to watch the temperature in hard disks but the hard disk might be nowhere near the Nvidia chips. The System Information for Windows program can also display some temperatures. Still, the best monitoring is probably with software from the motherboard or computer manufacturer, if they offer it.

Update August 20, 2008: A reader with a ThinkPad T61 laptop computer wrote to tell me that the fan runs all the time. I haven’t seen anything about Lenovo in terms of this Nvidia problem but the computer in question has an NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M.

The day after the announcement, Humphrey Cheung at tgdaily noted that “significant quantities” of Nvidia chips are overheating and failing.

“If you look at the HP page, the prophylactic fix they offer is to more or less run the fan all the time. Once again, for the non-engineers out there, fan running eats a lot of power, so this destroys the battery life of notebooks. Basically, people bought a machine with a battery life of X, and now it is Y to prevent meltdown from a bum part. It doesn’t fix anything, it just makes the failures take longer, hopefully past the warranty period, at a huge battery life cost. Fire up your class actions people, you got shafted.”

Update September 10, 2008: A lawsuit broke out. See Lawsuit alleges Nvidia hid chip defects.

Owners of 24 HP laptop computer models need to be concerned. See HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario v3000/v6000 Series Notebook PCs - HP Limited Warranty Service Enhancement and HP Limited Warranty Service Enhancement. I can’t tell which of these two items is the most recent since HP doesn’t date stamp them.

The only laptop vendors to step up to the plate so far have been Dell and HP.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

Two ways that failures manifest themselves are not being able to start the computer and, of course, a blank screen. Dell said that failure symptoms include multiple images, random characters on the screen lines on the screen. HP lists not detecting wireless networks as a sign of failure along with the wireless adapter not appearing in the Windows Device Manager. They also note that if the “battery charge indicator light does not turn on when the battery is installed and the AC adapter is connected” it may be due to this Nvidia problem.

Both companies offer a BIOS update. HP seems to have an updated BIOS for all affected machines, Dell has one for 10 of their 15 affected models.

HP describes the BIOS update thusly:

“Certain notebook configurations with GPUs and MCPs manufactured with a certain die/packaging material set are failing in the field at higher than normal rates. To date, abnormal failure rates with systems other than certain notebook systems have not been seen.”

Be aware of where the vents are and make sure they aren’t blocked. Also, check for dust on the fan and remove any that’s there. Go to the Power options in the Control Panel and make sure that all the available power management facilities are being used. They include powering down the hard disk after a period of inactivity as well as CPU power management. The Thinkpad T42 that I’m writing this on also offers PCI Bus power management.

If you own a laptop computer with Nvidia chips and you haven’t registered it with the hardware vendor, I suggest doing so. This way they can contact you if need be, and it can only help grease the wheels should you need warranty repair.

“HP has identified a hardware issue with certain HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario V3000/V6000 series notebook PCs, and has also released a new BIOS for these notebook PCs… The new BIOS release for your notebook PC is preventative in nature to reduce the likelihood of future system issues. The BIOS updates the fan control algorithm of the system, and turns the fan on at low volume while your notebook PC is operational.”

The solutions offered by both HP and Dell boil down to running the fan all the time to prevent the Nvidia hardware from getting too hot.

The problem has existed for a while. CNET blogger Brooke Crothers says the HP knew about this since November 2007. At The INQUIRER Charlie Demerjian wrote about this problem back in April of 2007. Last month, Mr. Demerjian offered a fascinating explanation of what’s going on in his article Nvidia plays the meltdown blame game. In it he says “…this problem hasn’t cropped up in desktop parts yet, but it most assuredly will.”

Other Steps To Take

All of the flawed processors and chipsets are not failing but the frequency of failure is unclear. Nvidia put it this way:

What To Do If You Are Affected

Gamecom 777 headphones from Plantronics.

(Credit: Swagalicious)

Here’s a way to have surround sound audio, but still keep it all to yourself.

Beginning later this month, peripherals maker Plantronics will start shipping its Gamecom 777 headset, which simulates 5.1 channel audio through just two channels–your left and right headphone speakers.

The intention is to enable PC gamers to play games with the sound happening around them, and not directly in their ears. That enables longer listening time–less “listening fatigue,” to use industry parlance–and therefore longer gaming sessions.

Taking Dolby 3D glasses and Plantronics surround sound headset for a spin in the Dolby theater.

(Credit:
Erica Ogg/CNET Networks)

I got a personal demonstration at the Dolby Theater here in San Francisco (see photo), along with several other journalists.

The Plantronics people pointed out the “hide-away boom,” which allows the mouthpiece of the headset to be tucked away into the headphones so they can be transformed from headphones to gaming headset. Fun side note: Plantronics said this was requested by focus groups because the mic often gets in the way of eating and drinking while gaming.

The headset is “open ear,” so you can hear some ambient noise while listening through the headphones. The surround-sound feature can also be switched off for regular listening via the inline control, and works with any device that has a native USB port. The headset is also designed to work with Skype, Windows Live, and Yahoo Messenger for VoIP calling.

The Gamecom 777 set will be available at retail beginning in September for $99.

The iPhone certainly is changing things.

(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

From the moment Apple announced iPhone, predictions were rampant that it would be the cell phone that would change the mobile world forever. As it turns out, the “Jesus phone” predictions were a little overblown, but indeed the
iPhone has shaken the U.S. cell phone business to its core. And I’m not talking about the hardware side here; rather, I’m referring to the basic structure of the entire industry.

Thursday at the iPhone SDK event, one attendee asked an intriguing question at the end of the program. “What is the relationship with the carrier? Up until now, apps have been released through the carrier.” In response, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: “We have great relationships with our carriers, and we struck a new relationship with our carriers where Apple is responsible for the software on the phone.”

It can’t be stated enough just how significant that “new relationship” is and just how game changing it is. For much of its life, the process of selling a cell phone in the United States went like this. A manufacturer would introduce a handset and then offer it to a carrier. The interested carrier would test the phone for its network, strip out any features or software it didn’t like or want (remember Verizon Wireless’s Bluetooth-crippling days?), stamp on its logo and signature user interface, and then sell the phone at a discounted price to lure customers into a contract. Once it made the phone and sold it to the carrier, the manufacturer hardly dealt with it again. For all intents and purposes, the handset became the carrier’s property and only the carrier made money off it from that point on. Not only would the carrier have an exclusive on the phone, but also the handset would be locked to that operator’s network. And if customers wanted to buy new applications or services, they usually went to the carrier to do so.

roundup
iPhone opens up for business Click here for complete coverage of Apple’s iPhone SDK announcements, which give the hot-shot gadget its entree into Corporate America and even the gaming world.

Sure, I may be oversimplifying things just a bit, but U.S. carriers ran the show on everything from the handset’s design and features to its price. It’s been that way for a long time and it looked like such a model would last well into the future. That is, until the iPhone came along. From the start, Apple ran this show. The company didn’t cede ground to AT&T on the iPhone’s design, its features, its interface, or its price. It worked with AT&T to develop the new visual voice mail system, which is unique to the iPhone. Apple even took over the handset activation process and it secured a revenue-sharing agreement where it would earn money every time an iPhone customer signs a contract.

All of this turned the normal carrier-manufacturer relationship on its head, and it’s no surprise that Apple, and not AT&T, will be the source for new iPhone software and applications. For a long time, U.S. carriers were fearful of becoming “dumb pipes.” In other words, instead of being just a way for customers to access applications and services, they wanted to sell those services themselves. But Apple’s entry to the space is changing that. And while customers may be changing one control freak for another, it’s definitely a new game.

On a final note, it’s also been fascinating to see how the iPhone has caused the federal government to take a new look at phone locking. Though that practice has been entrenched in the industry for years, the hype surrounding AT&T’s exclusive on the iPhone drew criticism from members of Congress last summer. And speaking of phone locking, we also have to consider Verizon’s surprising announcement in November that it would start unlocking its phones this year. While the iPhone may have nothing to do with Verizon’s decision, perhaps Google’s Android platform is a more likely suspect, the timing is interesting.

The A160T Hummingbird comes in for a landing May 9 at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona after a high-altitude hovering demonstration.

(Credit:
Boeing)

A disparate pair of aviation R&D projects at Boeing have hit milestones recently.

The A160T Hummingbird, a helicopter-style unmanned aerial vehicle, last week flew for 18.7 hours without refueling, an accomplishment that Boeing described Wednesday as an “unofficial world endurance record” for UAVs between 500 and 2,500 kilograms (about 1,100 to 5,500 pounds)–a record that’s pending certification by a key aeronautical sanctioning body.

But the record books aside, the flight also helps to show the Hummingbird’s mettle as a potential aircraft for military use. During the flight, the turbine-powered unmanned rotorcraft carried a 300-pound internal payload–which in eventual real-life operations might be supplies for ground troops or gear for in-flight surveillance–and flew as high as 15,000 feet. When it finished, it still had about 90 minutes worth of fuel in reserve.

In a test flight last September, the Hummingbird carried a heavier load for a shorter period of time (1,000 pounds and eight hours). The A160T variant first flew about a year ago, taking up where an earlier piston-powered version left off.

Another May milestone for the A160T Hummingbird, which is designed to fly autonomously, involved so-called hover-out-of-ground-effect flights at 15,000 and 20,000 feet. The ability to hover at the relatively high altitudes would make the UAV more effective for missions in mountainous areas and help keep it out of range of some ground-based air defense weapons, Boeing said.

Measuring 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diameter, the Hummingbird in service is expected to fly at 140 knots for more than 20 hours. Boeing Advanced Systems is building the UAV for DARPA and for the Army and Navy.

The Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft in flight.

(Credit:
Ed Turner, Boeing)

Also this week, Boeing said that on May 13, it fired a high-energy chemical laser–in ground tests–aboard a C-130H aircraft, a step toward in-flight tests later this year in which the laser will fire at ground targets from on high. The directed-energy weapon is designed to fire through a rotating belly turret in the aircraft, known as the Advanced Tactical Laser.

And in a me-too missive straight out of the Cold War, the Russian news agency Novosti reported a patriotic response to the ATL test from an unnamed Russian defense industry “expert.” Boeing, it would seem, is late to the game.

“We tested a similar system back in 1972. Even then our ‘laser cannon’ was capable of hitting targets with high precision,” the expert is quoted as saying. “We have moved far ahead since then, and the U.S. has to keep pace with our research and development.”

It’s smaller than a credit card

(Credit:
Modu)

The Guinness World Records named the Modu phone as the lightest cell phone in the world. At just 1.5 ounces and 2.8 inches by 1.4 inches by 0.3 inch, the Modu is a full ounce lighter than the already miniature Pantech C300. Without a doubt, it’s the tiniest cell phone I’ve seen outside of Zoolander.

In case you’re not familiar, Modu is a modular cell phone that can be placed into “jackets” that change the both the appearance and the functionality of the handset. The Modu only has a tiny display, a couple of navigation controls, a mini USB port, and a charger jack. It’s a normal cell phone in most respects but you’re not really meant to use by itself. Instead, it’s designed to be inserted into one of the jackets, which basically are the shells of a larger candy bar phone. My Modu hands-on from the GSMA World Congress will give you the full report.

Google announced on its official blog late Wednesday that Google Sites, its simplified Web site creation service, is now available to any registered Google user.

Previously, only businesses with Google Apps accounts and their own domains had had access to Google Sites.

Unlike the free Web site creation services of yesteryear (and by yesteryear, I mean 1998), Google Sites are collaborative, which engineering manager Andrew Zaeske said in the announcement makes them ideal for “team projects, company intranets, community groups, classrooms, clubs, family updates, you name it.”

No HTML knowledge is required, and sites are hosted for free at Google domains like sites.google.com/organicwheatgrassmoothieclub.

Google Sites got its start when Google acquired wiki platform JotSpot in 2006.

Google still rules Millward Brown Optimor’s annual BrandZ top 100 list, which annoints the world’s most powerful brands based on financial performance and a global consumer-opinion survey.

Technology-related companies did especially well, taking more than one-third of the top 30 spots.

(Credit:
Millward Brown Optimer)

No. 7 Apple was a big mover, increasing its brand value by 123 percent, and BlackBerry (from Research In Motion) increased 390 percent, positioned at No. 51. The staid IBM’s brand value increased 65 percent, and Amazon.com, at No. 61, was up 93 percent.

(Credit:
Millward Brown Optimer)

On the downside, No. 62 Yahoo took a 13 percent brand value hit. Microsoft, at No. 3, was up 29 percent, and No. 1 Google increased its brand value 30 percent year-over-year.

It’s not clear whether hooking up with Microsoft will help burnish Yahoo’s declining brand value as calculated by Millward Brown, but we may find out soon.

Intel will bring out a version of the Atom processor for low-cost desktops, among other form factors, according to a report.

Atom processor brand

(Credit:
Intel Corp.)

The Atom processor, announced earlier this week,
is a tiny low-power, low-cost processor destined for ultramobile devices and low-cost desktops typically running either Linux or Windows XP. The first Atom chips will ship in the second quarter.

A dual-core version of the Atom processor, due in the third quarter, will run at 1.87GHz and have a thermal envelope of 12 watts, according to the Chinese-language Web site HKEPC, which cites Taiwan motherboard manufacturers as sources. Some designs that use this version of Atom will have passive cooling. Passive cooling systems are typically fanless and thereby use less power.

Intel will not comment on unannounced products but spokesman Bill Calder said that there will be a dual-core Atom processor for desktops–which Intel is calling “Nettops”–that will appear after single-core versions. As previously reported, Atom processors for notebooks (Netbooks) will not be dual-core. At least not initially.

The dual-core version may find its way into set-top boxes and embedded systems too, the report said.

Systems will use a 945 Northbridge chipset and an ICH7 Southbridge. The Northbridge chipset connects the CPU to memory and the PCI bus. The Southbridge controls I/O functions, such as USB, audio, serial, and the system BIOS. Some of the systems may use an Intel “Little Falls 2″ Mini-ITX motherboard, a tiny (17×17 cm) low-power motherboard design developed by VIA Technologies, the report said.

This push by Intel–with both processors and motherboards–is expected to pose a challenge to VIA, which is a major player in the embedded market.