Latest Hi Tech News

As we have probably known, Microsoft officially unveiled its next generation Xbox “game and entertainment system” two weeks ago. Given the Xbox 360’s all-new PowerPC-based embedded architecture, the question arises: What operating system is embedded inside the Xbox 360?

The earlier Xbox (shown on the right) is based on a Pentium-family processor and is rumored to run a variant of Windows 2000. But the Xbox 360 has a completely different architecture, based on a custom triple-core IBM PowerPC processor along with other specialty silicon including a custom graphics processor made by ATI, plus 512MB of system DRAM. So, since Windows hasn’t supported the PowerPC architecture since Windows NT 4.0 SP3, and Windows CE also doesn’t support PowerPC, below are some questions to ponder:-

• Has Microsoft ported Windows XP to the PowerPC for the Xbox 360? Or, Windows CE?
• Does the Xbox 360 run a version of some off-the-shelf embedded OS, perhaps a variant of BSD UNIX?
• Does the Xbox 360 run a completely new embedded software platform developed specifically for Xbox use?

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What OS Runs Inside The Xbox 360?

U.K.-based Web security firm Netcraft on Wednesday released a Firefox plugin of the anti-phishing toolbar that’s been available for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer since December 2004.

Netcraft toolbar, which installs as a Firefox extension, or plug-in, automatically blocks suspected phishing sites identified by other users and verified by Netcraft. The company’s database of Web site information is also used to display several attributes of any visited site, including its country location, longevity, and popularity.

Basically, Netcraft anti-phishing system consists of a user interface implemented as a toolbar (a small program that is active whenever the user is using a web browser) and central servers, able to respond quickly to large numbers of requests as each user moves around the web. The central servers are managed by Netcraft and hold the information about URLs and sites provided by the Toolbar community and Netcraft.

At the moment, Netcraft Toolbar can be used simultaneously with Google Toolbar, but not fully compatibled with MSN Toolbar.

Download Netcraft Toolbar

[Source]

As we all known, IBM and Oracle are close rivals in database industry for the past few years. Last year, IBM and Oracle tied for No. 1 in worldwide new license sales for relational database management systems, as the total market rose more than 10 percent to $7.8 billion, a market research firm said.

The difference in revenues between the two companies was less than $30 million, making it too close to statistically identify who is the leader of relational database market, Gartner Inc. said.

Quoted:
Based on the small amount separating the two companies, IBM had 34.1 percent of the market and Oracle 33.7 percent, or $2.665.9 billion and $2.636 billion, respectively. Microsoft was third with 20 percent, or $1.6 billion. NCR Teradata and Sybase were fourth and fifth, respectively, 2.9 percent and 2.3 percent of the market.

[Source]

PalmOne announced an agreement with PalmSource, Inc. for palmOne to acquire full rights to the brand name Palm. The brand had been co-owned by the two companies since the October 2003 spin-off of PalmSource from Palm, Inc.

Quoted:
palmOne will pay PalmSource $30 million for PalmSource’s 55 percent share of the Palm Trademark Holding Company. Payment will be made in installments over 3.5 years. palmOne will change its company name to Palm, Inc. later this year. As part of the agreement, palmOne has granted PalmSource certain rights to Palm trademarks for PalmSource and its licensees for a four-year transition period.

A new logo and design treatment is believed will be unveiled later this summer. Moreover, mobile-computing products to be launched in the fall are expected to feature the name Palm instead of palmOne.

[Source]

On May 25, 2005, Nokia launched a new type of mobile device, which it is calling an Internet Tablet, which it said will focus on Internet browsing and e-mail.

The device, called the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, is based on Linux and has built-in support for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It sports an 800 x 480 display and an on-screen keyboard.

Quoted:
“Linux is a logical choice for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet as Linux and the Open Source development platform provide us with fast and efficient solutions to build products for this new Nokia product category,” Janne Jormalainen, Nokia’s vice president of convergence products, said in a statement.

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Nokia Launches Linux Internet Tablet

Google WebAccelerator has been launched in the beginning of May, and now Google has decided to stop accepting new user for registration of the service.

Quoted:
Thank you for your interest in Google Web Accelerator. We have currently reached our maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of users we can support.

Hopefully, Google will reopen the registration for new users soon. :)