David Richards

Intel’s No. 1 rival Advanced Micro Devices plans to buy the Canadian graphics chip maker ATI Technologies for $5.4 billion, mostly in cash.

The two boards have agreed on the deal, which they say will establish a new chip powerhouse with 14,900 employees and likely revenue of more than
$7 billion a year.

Separately, AMD has also slashed the prices of a number of its PC chips.  The Wall Street Journal says the AMD-ATI marriage will shift the balance of power in the chip industry. AMD’s product portfolio is limited to PC and server microprocessors but ATI will give it a rounded package of products.

ATI, which makes chipsets and graphics chips for PCs, also manufactures semiconductors for consumer products, such high-definition TVs and mobile phones.

The deal will step up pressure on Nvidia, the other dominant maker of graphics chips, which so far has allied with AMD to compete with Intel.

The CEO of Google has admitted that Google have struck a deal with Dell to ship millions of Dell computers with Google software.

Dell has agreed to ship 10s of millions of computers with Google software installed, a deal that takes the search engine’s battle with Microsoft to the latter company’s most prized territory — the desktop.
Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, announced the deal during a question and answer session at the Goldman Sachs 7th Annual Internet Conference in Las Vegas. Schmidt confirmed the multi-year deal, which was reported earlier in the day by The Wall Street Journal, but gave only a few details before launching into a discussion about the online advertising market.

“It’s very good for them and very good for us,” said Schmidt, who declined to give financial details, other than saying, “Think of it as both companies sharing revenue.”

The deal has Dell pre-installing Google’s search application for scouring a computer hard drive and emails, and a Web browser toolbar linking to Google’s online search engine and other services. The applications would be accessible through a side pane on Internet Explorer 6, the current version of Microsoft’s Web browser.

“It’s essentially a turnkey solution for search and information in general,” Schmidt said.

In addition, Dell would set the homepage of the computer’s browser to a co-branded Dell/Google Web site, and would make Google the default search engine.

The deal is seen as a big boost for Google in its heated competition with Microsoft, which is investing billions into search and other online services in order to grab a bigger slice of Google’ bread and butter — Web advertising related to search results. Analysts say that consumers are more likely to use software if it has been pre-installed in their computers.

In partnering with Dell, Google goes on the offensive by taking the rivalry to Microsoft’s most important product, the Windows operating system that monopolizes the PC market. At the same time, Google moves toward solidifying its lead in online search by getting its search engine in front of PC buyers.

“Overall, this is just definitely a big win for Google,” Dustin Rector, senior analyst for Tier 1 Research, said. “They’ve now found a way to get on the PC. It’s a big strategic move in competing with Microsoft in the marketplace.”

The deal comes on the heels of Google’s complaints that Microsoft is making it too difficult for people to switch the default search engine in the upcoming version of Internet Explorer, the software maker’s market-dominating Web browser. The Justice Department has said that IE 7 does not present a problem for competitors.

In losing before the government, Google apparently decided to fight fire with fire in becoming the default search engine in Dell PCs.

“It’s the right strategic initiative for them going forward,” Rector said. “It was the right move.”

Indeed, while Google is the clear leader in online search, it lags way behind rival Yahoo Inc. and in some cases Microsoft MSN in the most popular portal services.

In Web mail, for example, Yahoo Mail has a 42 percent market share, followed by MSN Hotmail, 23 percent; and MySpace Mail, 20 percent, according to Web metrics firm Hitwise. Google Gmail is far behind at less than 3 percent. In business and finance, Yahoo again leads with 35 percent, followed by MSN Money Central with 13 percent. Google Finance, on the other hand, is 40th in the market with slightly more than a quarter of one percent.

In search, however, Google has a big lead in the USA. In April, Google had a 43.1 percent share, compared with 28 percent for Yahoo and 12.9 percent for Microsoft MSN, according to ComScore Networks. In Australia has more than 70% of the search market.

Dell had sought bids from Internet companies for having their software installed in 100 million computers. Yahoo eventually pulled out of the running, and Google beat Microsoft, the Journal said.

While a similar deal would have been a big win for Yahoo too, the leading Web portal apparently felt its partnership with EBay Inc., also announced Thursday, was more important. Rector believes a future merger between the two companies is certainly possible.

“There’s tremendous potential with an EBay-Yahoo merger,” Rector said. “Those business would have a lot of synergy and potential integration down the road.”

Yahoo is a tremendous advertising machine around content revolving around news, finance, entertainment, social networking and other services, Rector said. On the other hand, EBay is a “three-headed monster,” with its marketplace, Internet telephony unit Skype, and online payment service PayPal.

Microsoft has released a new beta of Office 2007 in an effort to make the popular suite available to a broader group of potential critics.

The first release was limited to a group of about 10,000 customers and partners, and the final product is slated for release in early 2007. The beta is available as a download to the general public, but will expire on 31 January 2007.

Office 2007’s most visible new feature is a user interface that will change according to the task that a user is performing. The interface replaces current menus and toolbars with a ‘ribbon’ that will change according to the task. It aims to better advertise features that are available as part of the products.

“We think this is a great way to drive new productivity for users,” said Kirk Koenigsbauer, general manager for Office Servers at Microsoft, during a presentation for press and analysts in San Francisco earlier this month.

“We are recognising that people aren’t getting the full value out of the products. We want to do more with this results-oriented user interface to expose more of the functionality in the products that people can take advantage of.”

Microsoft has also focused on increasing the suite’s collaboration and integration features through Microsoft SharePoint and improved search capabilities for enterprises.

Individual applications offer a slew of feature enhancements. Word, for instance, will let bloggers publish posts directly from the application, and a new graphics engine for PowerPoint, dubbed Smart Art, provides templates and automatic layout tools.

The Outlook personal information management application has been expanded with a ‘to do’ bar that lists all upcoming tasks and appointments. Microsoft OneNote will introduce a new feature that lets users perform text-based queries search inside audio recordings.

The technology is developed by Microsoft Research and indexes audio and video notes that have been recorded inside the note-taking application. It will not transcribe the audio, but searches for the phonetic equivalent of a typed word.

OneNote lets users take notes as well as record audio or video. As the application records, it will timestamp the text notes that are added, allowing the user to quickly find a relevant section in the recording.

The audio search aims to let users find recording sections when they have failed to take a text note.

“This allows you to jump directly to individual places in the recordings that are of interest,” said Owen Braun, lead programme manager for Microsoft OneNote.

But Braun warned that the technology has limitations. The recording has to be of high quality, such as a recorded telephone conversation or one-on-one conversation.

Indexing one minute of audio will take the software on average three minutes to index.

“The technology is quite expensive,” said Braun. “But there are scenarios where it’s still worth it to get the benefit of spending the time to index it.”

OneNote will also introduce a mobile version of the application that lets users of PDAs or smartphones take notes with text, audio recordings or pictures. As the device is synchronised with the computer, the notes will be transferred automatically.

OneNote will introduce a new optical character recognition feature that allows the application to search inside a series of documents including screen clips, PDF documents and digital pictures.

The Office 2007 Beta 2 can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website.

If you have a new generation notebook or Desktop PC and are running Vista, forget about getting access to the new BigPond Next G network.

A senior executive of Canon Australia has claimed that both Epson and HP Inkjet printers do not print accurate colours but Canons new Inkjet printers do.

During a press briefing to journalist the executive KC Lu Product Manager of Inkjet Printing at Canon showed 3 examples of a file printed to normal A4 paper. The documents from a HP and Epson printer were significantly different from the printout from a new Canon MP510 printer that is among several new printers to be launched this week by Canon.

 The printouts from the HP and Epson printers appeared to be washed out with a map in the bottom left hand corner of the page appearing as green on the Canon printout as opposed to yellow from the other two competitor’s printers. When questioned how the tests had been done he said “We purchased the Epson and HP printers off the shelf at a retail store, powered them up, set all the settings to default and pressed print. We used the same paper in all three machines”.

When asked whether he was claiming that both the HP and Epson printers printed inferior quality to the Canon printer he said “yes the new Canon printer delivers much better quality” He also admitted that Canon consumables such as paper and ink were significantly more expensive in Australia than in Countries like the UK and the USA.

He later said” It is not our policy to knock our competition but we do have a powerful new product”. When questioned as to why Canon had not conducted the tests via an independent testing lab he said” We simply wanted to demonstrate the capabilities of our printers”

A spokesperson for Epson said “This is certainly unusual. There are so many variables from the printers to the computer to the settings. We would like to see the tests and the printers before we comment” A spokesperson for HP said “This is very unusual we would like to know the printer models and how the tests were done”.

The new range of Canon printers are under embargo until later this week. Canon has said that they will supply SmartHouse with all 3 printers for testing.

The outlook for PC salesis improving, a new report says. IDC has raised its forecasts for shipment growth in 2006, 2007 and 2008 following a first-quarter 2006 that topped expectations.

 The improved outlook for 2006 comes thanks to notebooks’ continued strength and despite the combination of delays with broad availability of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system, now scheduled for January 2007, and slower than expected first-quarter growth in the United States and Western Europe.

Thanks to growth in the remaining markets, worldwide PC shipments grew 12.6 percent during the first quarter of 2006, topping IDC’s March 2006 prediction of 11.8 percent, a report by the Framingham, Mass., company says. IDC updates its PC market forecasts quarterly.

PC unit shipment growth in 2006 is now expected by IDC to reach 10.8 percent, up from a March forecast of 10.5 percent. The company also raised its outlook for 2007 by about 1 percent to 11.7 percent and increased its 2008 growth projections slightly to 10.6 percent. Total worldwide PC unit shipments are projected to reach a hair over 230 million in 2006, about 257 million in 2007 and almost 285 million in 2008, IDC’s report said.

Nokia has introduced new upgraded software “OS 2006 edition” for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.Nokia has introduced new upgraded software “OS 2006 edition” for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. The upgraded version boasts of support for rich Internet communications, including pre-installed Google Talk, on a portable broadband mobile device. This will allow the Nokia Internet Tablet users to instantly communicate with people, both through instant messaging and Voice over IP.

The additional features of the new software edition include enhanced text typing with full-screen finger keyboard, improved memory performance, and fresh look. Additionally, there is an improved home view desktop that allows users to choose from a variety of small applets to enable fast access to Internet services.

Ari Virtanen, vice president – convergence products, multimedia, of Nokia said, “We are pleased to offer this software upgrade to both the existing user base of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet as well to new users. Since the launch of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, we have received a lot of positive feedback along with requests for both small and large improvements”.

In addition to Google Talk, which is based on open standards and is compatible with all instant messaging clients that support Jabber/XMPP, the tablet also offers Google as the default search provider, which makes it even easier for users to get the information they need quickly and easily.

The upgraded Internet Tablet software platform can also support SIP based VoIP solutions for broadband business benefit. Standalone software applications, like the popular Gizmo project by SIPPhone Inc, is planned to be available for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. The Gizmo Project has a rich feature set including the capability to make and receive calls from public telephony networks.

The Tablet is a Wi-Fi enabled device optimized for Internet communications in a slim pocketsize format. It features an impressive high-resolution (800×480) 4.13″ widescreen display with zoom and on-screen, full-screen finger keyboard or handwriting recognition, ideal for viewing online content over Wi-Fi. Apart from Wi-Fi, the device can also connect to the Internet using Bluetooth wireless technology by means of a compatible mobile device.

The Internet Tablet OS 2006 edition, based on popular desktop Linux and Open Source technologies is expected to be available during the second quarter of 2006 in selected countries in Europe and America. It can also be downloaded free of charge from the Internet www.nokia.com/770.