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Intel To Unveil Some 22nm Ivy Bridge Processors On April 8? - Phased Rollout Could Delay New MacBook Pro Release
Seagate's Hybrid Momentus XT 750-GB Drive: Almost an SSD, Almost Affordable
Memory-Cleaning Utilities: Not The Panacea They Claim To Be
Twisted Pair Menu Bar Ethernet Connection Status Menu
Intel Tries to Keep Netbooks Alive With New Atom Chips
Bean 3.0.2 Free Word Processor Update Released
LibreOffice 3.50 beta 2 Released
Windows 8 Key Features - New Article From eMazzanti Technologies
Computer Magazine's Annual Outlook Issue Available in Advanced Digital Format
Allway Sync Backup Solution Now Supports iKeepinCloud, an Online Data Storage Provided by Ikoula
Intel To Unveil Some 22nm Ivy Bridge Processors On April 8? - Phased Rollout Could Delay New MacBook Pro Release
Digitimes' Monica Chen and Steve Shen report that Intel plans to release 25 models of its next-generation 22nm Ivy Bridge family of processor chips, including 17 CPUs for desktops and eight for notebooks and ultrabooks on or around April 8, 2012, according to sources at PC makers in Taiwan.
This news is of particular interest to those of us attempting to draw a bead on a likely release date for the next generation of MacBook Pro notebooks, widely anticipated to be coming sometime in the spring.
Chen and Shen say Core i7-3920Qm, 3820QM and 3720QM notebook CPUs will be released in April, with other models including Core i5-3520M, 3360M, 3320M and ultrabook CPUs Core i7-3667U and Core i5-3427U to be unveiled later. If that prediction is accurate, it doesn't look good for an April MacBook Pro rollout, since it's a pretty sure bet that Apple will want Core i5 models on the mix as well as Core i7.
Perhaps a June MacBook Pro refresh?
For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111228PD211.html
Seagate's Hybrid Momentus XT 750-GB Drive: Almost an SSD, Almost Affordable
So says the Houston Chronicle's Dwight Silverman, noting that in September he wrote about the joy of installing a 240 GB Mercury Extreme Pro 3G Solid State Drive in his 13-inch MacBook Pro, dramatically improving the notebook's speed, but at a stiff cost for what is modest capacity these days.
Silverman maintains that SSDs won't gain mass acceptance until pricing comes down and capacity goes up, but an alternative that's more affordable and provides almost the same performance is hybrid hard drives, which combine a small SSD with a conventional rotating disk drive, providing higher capacity and better performance than a regular HDD at a fraction of the price of a pure SSD, for example delivering a boot time of about 15 seconds vs. 11 seconds for the SSD.
For the full review visit here:
http://bit.ly/tRmNwG
Memory-Cleaning Utilities: Not The Panacea They Claim To Be
MacFixIt's Topher Kessler notes that there's no shortage of programs promising to boost your computer's performance by clearing its memory, but advises that you should think twice before taking their claims at face value, noting that tools such as MemoryFree 2, iCleanMemory, FreeMemory, MemoryFreer, Memory Cleaner, Memory Cleaner Pro, MemoryScope, FreeMemory Pro, Flush Memory, and so on technically free up system memory - which to most people suggests the system now has more memory to use - while in fact most of the time this is not the case.
Kessler explains that while the process technically frees up RAM, it only does so in the sense that squeezing a sponge down on a flat surface frees up water-absorbing capability. Release the sponge, and it will slowly start soaking up the water again. Similarly, RAM that has been "squeezed" by a cleaner program will be free, but the programs rev back up, they'll start soaking it back up again, and you're probably better off spending your money on a RAM upgrade.
For the full report visit here:
http://cnet.co/txcVnl
Twisted Pair Menu Bar Ethernet Connection Status Menu
Costa Technologies' Twisted Pair 1.0 provides dynamic information about your Ethernet connection. Twisted Pair lives in your status bar, giving you at-a-glance information about your wired network connection, obviating the need to dig three levels deep in System Preferences.
If you're running Lion, you can enable AirDrop on your wired connection to easily transfer files between Macs on the same network. Twisted Pair also includes commands to turn the interface on and off and to enable or disable Air Drop on the Ethernet connection.
System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.6 or later
• 64-bit processor
$1.99
Mac App Store:
http://bit.ly/w35RYl
Product page:
http://twistedpair.me/
Intel Tries to Keep Netbooks Alive With New Atom Chips
IDG News's Agam Shah reports that Intel on Wednesday started shipping the latest Atom chips for netbooks, an important step to sustain growth of the low-cost PCs in the wake of the tablet onslaught.
Shah cites Intel saying in a statement that the dual-core Cedar Trail chips bring better battery life and overall improved performance to netbooks, doubling graphics performance, while reducing power consumption by up to 20 percent compared to Atom predecessors introduced two years ago. The new chips will help netbooks provide up to 10 hours of battery life on one charge. Top PC makers, including Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus and Samsung, will ship netbooks with Cedar Trail chips beginning in January starting at US$199.
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/uaIn8D
Bean 3.0.2 Free Word Processor Update Released
Bean 3 is a small, easy-to-use and free rich text editor and lightweight word processor designed to make writing convenient, efficient and comfortable. A bugfix version 3.0.2 is now available.
Lean, fast and uncluttered, Bean starts up quickly, has a live word count, page layout mode, full-screen mode, regular expression search/replace, multi-column text, inline graphics, detailed statistics, and much more, and its user interface is easy on the eyes. While MS Word, OpenOffice, etc. try to be all things to all people, sometimes you just want the right tool for the job. That's Bean's niche. For example, Bean doesn't do footnotes or use stylesheets and is only partially compatible with Word's file formats. Also, it allows in-line graphics, but not floating graphics.
New in Version 3 are an optional single-window tabbed interface layout, template documents with boilerplate text, a split view, a two-up layout view, freeform headers and footers, plain text editing, and other improvements.
Bean features:
• live word count
• make template documents with boilerplate text
• free-form headers and footers
• page layout view (optional 2-up)
• alternate colors option (e.g., white text on blue)
• split-window editing
• full screen editing
• date-stamped backups
• selection of text by text style, paragraph style, color, etc.
• find panel allows regular expressions (pattern matching)
• all of Cocoa's good stuff (dictionary, word completion, etc.)
Bean natively reads and writes these file formats:
• .rtf format (rich text)
• .rtfd format (rich text with graphics)
• .bean format (identical to .rtfd)
• plain text (Unicode and legacy)
• .webarchive format (Apple's web archive format)
Bean transparently imports and exports these formats:
• .doc format (MS Word '97, minus images, margins, and page size)...more info here
• .docx format (Word 2007, minus images and some formatting)...more info here
• .odt format (OpenDocument, minus images, margins, and page size)
Bean can export all of the above formats to these formats:
• .html (web page format)
• .doc compatible (with images intact)
New in Version 3.0.2:
• Fixed a problem where text fields did not accept digits after ',' used as a decimal.
New in Version 3.0.1:
• Totally rewritten, with many new features. Requires OS X 10.5+
• Drag-resize of edit view in draft mode now works (oops).
• Tabbed editing
• Ability to resize the width of the draft edit view within its window
• Plain text editing
System requirements:
• Bean requires a Mac with a PPC or Intel processor running OS X 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard, or 10.7 Lion
• An older version (2.4.5) is still available compatible with OS X Tiger 10.4+
For more information, visit:
http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html
LibreOffice 3.50 beta 2 Released
LibreOffice is a comprehensive, professional-quality productivity suite that you can download and install for free. There is a large base of satisfied LibreOffice users worldwide, and it is available in more than 30 languages and for all major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, ...).
LibreOffice is a feature-packed and mature desktop productivity package with some really great advantages:
- It's free - no worry about license costs or annual fees.
- No language barriers - it's available in a large number of languages, with more being added continually.
- LGPL public license - you can use it, customize it, hack it and copy it with free user support and developer support from our active worldwide community and the large and experienced developer team.
LibreOffice gives you high quality:
• The roots of LibreOffice go back 20 years. This long history means it's a stable and functional product.
• Thousands of users worldwide regularly take part in beta testing of new LibreOffice versions.
• Because the development process is completely open, LibreOffice has been extensively tested by security experts, giving you security and peace of mind.
LibreOffice is user-friendly:
• You get a simple-to-use yet powerful interface that is easy to personalize Microsoft Office users will find the switch easy and painless, with a familiar look and feel.
• Compatible with all major competitors' file formats. You can easily import files from Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and many other formats, and can easily save to Microsoft Office and other formats when needed.
• LibreOffice is supported by a big worldwide community: volunteers help newcomers, and advanced users and developers can collaborate with you to find solutions to complex issues.
Writer is the word processor inside LibreOffice. Use it for everything, from dashing off a quick letter to producing an entire book with tables of contents, embedded illustrations, bibliographies and diagrams. The while-you-type auto-completion, auto-formatting and automatic spelling checking make difficult tasks easy (but are easy to disable if you prefer). Writer is powerful enough to tackle desktop publishing tasks such as creating multi-column newsletters and brochures. The only limit is your imagination.
Calc tames your numbers and helps with difficult decisions when you're weighing the alternatives. Analyze your data with Calc and then use it to present your final output. Charts and analysis tools help bring transparency to your conclusions. A fully-integrated help system makes easier work of entering complex formulas. Add data from external databases such as SQL or Oracle, then sort and filter them to produce statistical analyses. Use the graphing functions to display large number of 2D and 3D graphics from 13 categories, including line, area, bar, pie, X-Y, and net with the dozens of variations available, you're sure to find one that suits your project.
Impress is the fastest and easiest way to create effective multimedia presentations. Stunning animation and sensational special effects help you convince your audience. Create presentations that look even more professional than the standard presentations you commonly see at work. Get your collegues' and bosses' attention by creating something a little bit different.
Draw lets you build diagrams and sketches from scratch. A picture is worth a thousand words, so why not try something simple with box and line diagrams? Or else go further and easily build dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects. It's as simple or as powerful as you want it to be.
Base is the database front-end of the LibreOffice suite. With Base, you can seamlessly integrate your existing database structures into the other components of LibreOffice, or create an interface to use and administer your data as a stand-alone application. You can use imported and linked tables and queries from MySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft Access and many other data sources, or design your own with Base, to build powerful front-ends with sophisticated forms, reports and views. Support is built-in or easily addable for a very wide range of database products, notably the standardly-provided HSQL, MySQL, Adabas D, Microsoft Access and PostgreSQL.
Math is a simple equation editor that lets you lay-out and display your mathematical, chemical, electrical or scientific equations quickly in standard written notation. Even the most-complex calculations can be understandable when displayed correctly. E=mc2.
LibreOffice also comes configured with a PDF file creator, meaning you can distribute documents that you're sure can be opened and read by users of almost any computing device or operating system.
New in version Version 3.50b2:
- 'Back' is misleading, use 'Revert' instead fdo#39452 [Lior Kaplan]
- always load res of LibO UI locale, not system deflocale fdo#43475 [Andras Timar]
- always sort category axis when it's a date type. fdo#43681 [Kohei Yoshida]
- avoid SIGBUS writing to overcommitted mmaped diskspace rhbz#767708 [Stephan Bergmann]
- better fix for over-zealous Zip package consistency. bnc#653688 [Thorsten Behrens]
- can't claim its not a DXF just because didn't see SECTION fdo#43082 [Caoln McNamara]
- component_getFactory is missing fdo#43422 [Caoln McNamara]
- correct default horizontal alignment for complex script. fdo#32530 [Kohei Yoshida]
- crash inserting table control fdo#42694 [Caoln McNamara]
- do not lose height of tree list box in Navigator fdo#39528 [Ivan Timofeev]
- don't evaluate error cells as values during filtering. fdo#35539 [Kohei Yoshida]
- don't try to use Inf for axes calculation fdo#43703 [Markus Mohrhard]
- fail fast if cups is non-operational. bnc#722902 [Thorsten Behrens]
- fix bnc#653688 [Thorsten Behrens]
- fix RTF import crasher with keep in table properties bnc#228839 [Cdric Bosdonnat]
- fix RTF import of fields inside tables fdo#42109 [Miklos Vajna]
- fix docx hyperlink writing fdo#35826 bnc#706138 [Luboa LuHk]
- fix inconsistent compression method for encrypted ZIP packages. bnc#653688 [Thorsten Behrens]
- fix selection of background pictures vs text bnc#676858 [Cdric Bosdonnat]
- fixed ROWS(), COLUMNS() and SHEETS() don't work with external references fdo#43700 [Eike Rathke]
- fixed an RTF import crash when handling formdata in non-FORM fields bnc#703032 [Cdric Bosdonnat]
- fixed chart listener registration during ODS import. fdo#39118 [Kohei Yoshida]
- fixed present Catalan (Valencian) as selectable UI language fdo#37349 [Eike Rathke]
- handle empty members correctly during field popup. fdo#35981 [Kohei Yoshida]
- header/Footer: RTL display fixes fdo#43793 [Cdric Bosdonnat]
- iFSD_Equal is asymmetrical rhbz#761009 [Caoln McNamara]
- if a bracket pair has no left/right bracket, it needs to explicit fdo#32636 [Luboa LuHk]
- import m:eqArr (part of fdo#32636 [Luboa LuHk]
- impress210: added CTRL-ALT-C as shortcut for inserting comments in calc OOo issue #116847 [Christian Lippka ORACLE]
- infer number format from formula result if appropriate. fdo#43467 [Kohei Yoshida]
- label PRINTING misplaced on paper sheet fdo#36874 [Winfried Donkers]
- move SID_INSERT_CURRENT_DATE/TIME to GID_INSERT fdo#30714 [Miklos Vajna]
- pass the correct ScTabViewShell instance to the input box. fdo#43614 [Kohei Yoshida]
- preserving dbf import/export charset. fdo#33602 [Muthu Subramanian]
- rTF export: handle url fields without a field result fdo#37498 [Miklos Vajna]
- rTF import: default scale for images is 100% not 0% bnc#228839 bnc#77738 [Cdric Bosdonnat]
- rTL PopupMenu position fixes fdo#43790 [Cdric Bosdonnat]
- resolved Advanced FILTER incompatible with 3.4.4 documents fdo#43831 [Eike Rathke]
- resolves crash on saving a file fdo#43725 [Eike Rathke]
- revert "Fix " bnc#653688 [Thorsten Behrens]
- row Height is unnecessarily large. fdo#33747 [Muthu Subramanian]
- set correct auto scaling for stacked data series. fdo#43681 [Kohei Yoshida]
- set initial focus to "Number of copies" fdo#34641 [Ivan Timofeev]
- show/hide anchor when the anchoring status changes. fdo#38545 [Kohei Yoshida]
- sw: Fix cursor accessibility API fdo#43390 [Vincent Povirk]
- sw: avoid creating cursor with non-text node text range fdo#40195 [Noel Power]
- teach old-style method about the new form of screen numbering fdo#43458 [Michael Meeks]
- tweak workarounds for fdo#43707 fdo#42865 [Michael Stahl]
- use correct address convention during search and replace. fdo#39917 [Kohei Yoshida]
- use different default key bindings for Hungarian locale fdo#30714 [Miklos Vajna]
System Requirements: Macintosh
The software and hardware prerequisites for installing LibreOffice on a Macintosh computer are as follows:
• MacOSX 10.4 (Tiger) or higher;
• Intel or PowerPC processor;
• 512 Mb RAM;
• Up to 800 Mb available hard disk space;
• 1024x768 graphic device with 256 colors (higher resolution recommended).
For certain features of the software - but not most - Java is required. Java is notably required for Base.
For more information, visit:
http://www.libreoffice.org/download
Windows 8 Key Features - New Article From eMazzanti Technologies
New Windows 8 operating system major features are reviewed in a new Microsoft article available through eMazzanti Technologies, an IT support and computer expert serving the Hoboken, NJ and New York City areas.
Individuals and small businesses can also watch a Windows 8 video demo, download other articles and schedule their own live demo as well from eMazzanti at:
http://www.emazzanti.net/windows8
Twitter followers can get additional information @Mazzanti.
Facebook followers can quickly get the information at:
http://www.facebook.com/emazzantitechnologies
"The power and capabilities of Windows 8 are going make many small businesses set up and pay attention," says Jennifer Mazzanti, president of eMazzanti Technologies, a premiere computer IT guru serving the Hoboken, New Jersey and New York City areas for over 10 years. "Microsoft talks about the new offering as re-imagining the OS and so far it doesn t disappoint."
At a recent BUILD Conference, Microsoft continued to showcase the features and benefits of the Windows 8 beta. Some of the features are outlined below. For a copy of the entire article, go to:
http://www.emazzanti.net/windows-8-key-features
Touch-First User Interface:
Metro style. Windows 8 introduces a new Metro style interface built for touch, which shows information important to you, embodies simplicity and gives you control. The Metro style UI is equally at home with a mouse and keyboard as well.
Touch-first browsing, not just browsing on a touch device. Providing a fast and fluid touch-browsing experience, Internet Explorer 10 puts sites at the center on new Windows 8 devices.
More ways to engage with powerful, connected apps.
Powered by apps. Metro style apps built for Windows 8 are the focal point of your experience, filling your entire screen so there are no distractions.
Apps can work together. Apps communicate with each other in Windows 8. For example, you can easily select and email photos from different places, such as Facebook, Flickr or on your hard drive.
Your experience syncs across your devices. Live roams all the content from the cloud services you use most photos, email, calendar and contacts keeping them up-to-date on your devices. With SkyDrive, you can access your files, photos and documents from virtually anywhere with any browser or with Metro style apps in Windows 8.
For more information, visit:
http://emazzanti.net
Computer Magazine's Annual Outlook Issue Available in Advanced Digital Format
Computer magazine s Outlook Issue is now available in advanced digital format. In the annual issue, renowned researchers from leading educational institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California Berkeley and top tech companies like Google and Microsoft explore the critical issues facing computing today.
MacArthur grant recipient Dawn Song and two UC Berkeley computer science colleagues join Umesh Shankar, a Google senior staff engineer, in addressing the troubling issue of cloud computing security. Their article, Cloud Data Protection for the Masses, describes an innovative data-protection-as-a-service cloud platform architecture that has the potential to be extended to a wide range of applications.
In his Software Development for Infrastructure article, Bjarne Stroustroup, inventor of the programming language C++, argues for more stringent correctness, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability requirements for software development. The need is critical, Stroustroup argues, since we re surrounded by systems whose failure can result in severe physical or economic injury.
Alex Pentland, director of MIT s Human Dynamics Laboratory, explores the balancing act between creating pervasive sensing and mobile computing systems to serve our needs and the broad use of data to support those systems.
Daniel A. Reed, Microsoft corporate vice president for technology policy, joins Dennis Gannon, director of Microsoft s Cloud Computing Research Engagement project, and James R. Larus, director of the Microsoft Research eXtreme Computing group, in discussing how advancement is creating both technical challenges and opportunities to address important societal issues. Imagining the Future: Thoughts on Computing offers an overview of where computing is heading, and how these changes will affect the research-and-development community, the educational system, and the workforce.
An annual subscription to the advanced digital version of Computer complete with supplemental audio, video, and Web extras to broaden your understanding of key concepts is available for $29.95 for 12 issues, or $5 per issue. Visit http://www.computer.org/digitaleditions to find out more.
The new digital version of Computer will allow for anytime, anywhere access; easy search capability to get you quickly where you want to go; and digital archive access to let you quickly peruse past issues.
Computer magazine covers all aspects of computer science. For more than 40 years, developers, researchers, and managers have relied on the magazine for timely, peer-reviewed information about research, trends, best practices, and changes in the profession.
Four other IEEE Computer Society technical magazines are available in digital format: IEEE Software, IEEE Security & Privacy, IEEE IT Pro, and IEEE Internet Computing. Visit http://www.computer.org/digitaleditions to subscribe.
For more information, go to:
http://www.computer.org
Allway Sync Backup Solution Now Supports iKeepinCloud, an Online Data Storage Provided by Ikoula
IKeepinCloud is now natively integrated into the Allway Sync version 11.7.0, both in free and professional editions. Users can now back up and synchronize files on their local PC and files on their iKeepinCloud storage with Allway Sync software.
Also accessible via the WebDAV protocol iKeepinCloud easily integrates with third-party applications like Allway Sync, allowing enhance the service by the features essential for users.
One advantage of Allway Sync is its dual function, backup and synchronization; so now the users can work on their tasks offline as well as get peace of mind with online backup.
"When we launched iKeepinCloud, one of our goals was to build a network of partners capable of providing added value to the product. Allway Sync has met our expectations; it allows us to be more competitive and to cover a wider range of needs," says Ikoula Product Manager Clara Guenand.
Ikoula has been providing web hosting solutions and applications for over 13 years. The company has its own Data Center in Reims, France, that hosts more than 4000 dedicated servers and 8000 virtual machines. Ikoula has solutions for Public and Private Cloud: The Express division dedicated to small businesses looking for packaged solutions, flexible and readily available online.
For more information, visit:
http://www.ikeepincloud.com/en
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