hzdaoche.com

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Swann)

4x digital zoom
Six infrared LEDs for night vision
Omni-directional microphone
MPEG4 and MJPEG compression formats supported

From the folks who brought you the creepy and simultaneously cool (depending on who’s using it) DVR flashlight, comes another 007-inspired piece of high-tech security gear. On Wednesday, Swann Communications introduced the IP-3G ConnectCam 1000.

The IP-3G ConnectCam 1000 is “coming soon” to Swann’s retail and online resellers for $299.99.

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Swann Communications)

The camera can be configured to take a snapshot whenever it detects motion, and you can then have that pic e-mailed to an address of your choosing. The two-way unidirectional microphone allows remote communication between whoever is in earshot of the camera and the person monitoring it, whether from their 3G phone or PC.

I would almost wish for something like this to happen, just to potentially drive some would-be criminals insane.

If someone was to break in to your house or business while you’re half a world away in Barcelona, for example, you could actually get on the speaker and pretend you’re god and tell them you can see everything they’re doing and that they will be punished for this. Or tell them that you have friends in high places and that you’ve just sent every cop in the city to your house.

This has some interesting potential applications.

The camera also features the following:

The ConnectCam is a 802.11G wireless network camera that lets users view their own surveillance video on their 3G phone (setup of the camera’s options requires a PC) from anywhere in the world, according to Swann. I really need to get my superiors to send me to New Zealand to test out this whole “anywhere in the world” thing.

Now, I’m not a proponent of ads. I love free online services. But as an editor of mine said this evening, it is sometimes hard to fathom how angry users get when someone tries to put ads on free sites. “How dare they try to make money,” seems to go the thinking.

Whether that model would fly for corporate accounts is very uncertain to me. I know that I personally would have no interest in a Dell feed, or a Microsoft feed. I’m trying to think of a company whose feed I would willingly subscribe to–and read–and I’m coming up blank.

In an interview, venture capitalist and Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito–who helped create Digital Garage, which was largely responsible for localizing Twitter for its Japanese version–explained that it was thought that implementing ads from day one was the way to go there.

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Joi Ito)

If Twitter Japan is successful with its roll-out of ads, it could become a model for the English-language version.

Well, there’s more to it, of course. Obviously, many implementations of ad-supported sites are horrible. But meanwhile, Twitter is rolling along, building a user base of people who are becoming more and more dependent on it, and there doesn’t seem to be a dime coming in, at least not from the public site.

Another interesting thing, meanwhile, about the Twitter Japan ad model is that it launched with spots from Toyota, which link to an opt-in Toyota Twitter feed.

I’m not sure exactly what would come through that feed, but it’s not clear to me how receptive the audience will be to corporate marketing coming through feeds. On the other hand, there are already some examples of that here, at least in the form of political marketing, like that of Barack Obama’s Twitter account.

But if ads ever do come, and they’re just on Twitter.com pages, well, I’m going to cut the company a little slack.

And certainly, there have been rumblings here or there about ads coming. But an Internet truism seems to be that you simply can’t add ads to a site that hasn’t had them. There is no better way to chase away your users than to do that.

Digital Garage invested in Twitter as part of the localization arrangement.

As Twitter Japan gets going upon its launch Tuesday night (California time), one of the things that observers are going to be most closely watching is whether or not Japanese users accept the ads that are on the new site.

The question may eventually come down to whether people would rather have Twitter with ads or no Twitter at all.

That’s mainly because one of the biggest questions–or maybe concerns is the proper term–about the main, English-language version of Twitter is that, because it’s ad-free and free to use, it has no obvious business model.

“Ads are important,” Ito told me. “It’s always harder to add ads later. So we’re launching with them in Japan.”

I don’t mean to sound alarmist, or to be an apologist for the ad model. But again, after seeing the Japanese site, I just can’t see how having ads on Twitter’s pages here would be all that much of an imposition. Sure, it would ruin the simple, clean, innocent feel of the site, but that can’t last forever, can it? Google’s home page still doesn’t have ads, but its search results pages sure do.

Until I saw what the Twitter Japan site looked like, I wasn’t at all sure how ads would work. But after seeing an image of the site, which Ito posted on his own blog, I think it’s actually a pretty light implementation, and one which users of the English-language site would be hard-pressed to get up in arms over.

But I think the Twitter Japan ad experience is going to be very closely examined, because if people in Japan aren’t put off by the ads, it’s going to be hard to make the argument that people here would be, even though we’re used to the ad-free model.

Ultimately, then, the lesson here may be: Get ready to deal with ads on Twitter, in one form or another. I could well have this totally backwards, but I’m guessing not. Where Twitter loses me, however, is if they push ads into associated services like Twhirl.

This pop-up window shows New York Times news related to a Google Earth region, in this case China.

Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz said the company is open to partnerships with other media outlets and that extending such a feature to Google Maps–a much more widely used service than the Google Earth software–”would be a logical progression,” though the company has nothing to announce right now.

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Google)

New York Times “placemarks” will appear on maps where there’s relevant news, and showing the New York Times layer in the software will show a window with a month’s worth of headlines, Google’s LatLong blog said.

Google has added a new layer to its Google Earth software that shows New York Times news linked to the region a person is viewing with the geographic software.

Those who want to try the feature must download the latest version of Google Earth, which runs on Windows,
Mac OS X, and Linux.

commentary

Time was when most enterprise software came in the front door as part of a formal, signed-off-at-the-highest levels procurement process. Or it got written in-house as part of an equally formal, multi-year development plan. Or some combination of the two. You didn’t expect that expensive packaged software you bought to just work out of the box did you?

However, the trend goes well beyond open source. Consider the following two examples.

Lots of software still gets purchased and developed that way of course. However, the truly striking story of the past decade is how so many of the tools and other software that we take for granted today are essentially bottoms-up phenomena. They largely came in the back door and made their way into what’s often called the "Shadow IT" of organizations. Official IT didn’t make this software ubiquitous and mainstream. For the most part, it was already ubiquitous and mainstream by the time IT departments got around to blessing it.

Even the red-hot virtualization trend is an example of bottoms-up. One of the reasons that virtualization was able to really break out was that it lent itself to small, local IT optimizations with immediate payback. You could install VMware on just one or two servers and see an immediate benefit. You didn’t need to rototill your data center management and change any number of business processes.

Linux (and, more broadly, open source in general) is perhaps the canonical example of this trend. In some respects, Linux adoption just mimicked past adoption patterns for distributed computing in general–from Windows NT servers to PCs and even Unix in the early days. However, open source licenses make backdoor sourcing one big quantum step easier. Indeed, the basic idea that open source licensing helps to build a developer and user base that can then be monetized when the software goes into production underpins a lot of the thinking around business models associated with open source.

However, beyond e-mail and calendaring, it’s been instant messaging that’s probably been the tool with the biggest impact, rather than something bigger and more architected. And IM came in from the consumer space, often informally. Indeed, many organizations still just use freebie IM from AOL or Yahoo or Google rather than some enterprise version.

The downside of all this ad hoc-ism is that it can lead to tools that can’t really grow or that don’t have other characteristics–such as reliability–that become more important as usage transitions from casual to business-critical. (See twitter.) But that genuine caveat aside, the IT industry is in a qualitatively different place than it once was. The enterprise architects still have a job to do. But no small part of that job is now integrating with tools that users and departments have brought in on their own.

Today, the next phase of virtualization–which goes by terms like Dynamic IT–is indeed a broader concept requiring a more deliberate and phased approach. But it got its start at the small scale (which distinguishes it from many of the virtualization management solutions being touted today that are only truly useful at data center scale).

Especially as workforces get more distributed, tools such as Novell Teaming + Conferencing and Lotus Domino have moved beyond e-mail and calendaring to encompass a much broader set of formal and informal interactions within a company. Cisco CEO John Chambers has said that "collaboration" is the one word that describes where his company and the entire technology industry is headed.

Derek Perez, an Nvidia spokesman, said this is related to a discussion in its second quarter 2008 earnings conference call “about how the business outlook has changed dramatically from what we thought it was going to be at the beginning of the year.”

Nvidia has also faced stiffer competition from its main rival, the ATI graphics unit of Advanced Micro Devices. ATI’s newest midrange and high-end graphics boards–launched in June–were well-received and typically priced at a discount, though roughly equal in performance to Nvidia boards. This forced Nvidia to cut prices on its performance graphics chips.

“Our action today is difficult, but necessary considering current business realities. Despite our reduction, we will
continue to invest in selective high-growth opportunities like our revolutionary CUDA parallel computing
technology and our Tegra mobile single-chip computer,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia in a statement.

Responding to “business realities,” Nvidia is cutting its workforce by over six percent.

The company expects to record restructuring-related charges of approximately $7 million to $10 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2009 in connection with the reduction. These pre-tax charges are comprised of severance and related expenses and are expected to be charged primarily against NVIDIA’s operating expenses, the company said.

Update at 10:45 p.m. with additional information throughout.

Nvidia, the world’s largest graphics chip supplier, on Thursday announced a workforce reduction of 6.5 percent “to allow for continued investment in strategic growth areas,” the company said in a statement. “As a result, Nvidia expects to eliminate approximately 360 positions worldwide, or about 6.5 percent of the company’s global workforce.”

Both Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard have issued advisories, workarounds, and, in some cases, extended warranties to deal with potential computer breakdowns related to the Nvidia graphics glitch.

Nvidia has been in the throes of a minor stock meltdown. On July 2, Nvidia announced a one-time charge of $150 million to $200 million to cover warranty, repair, return, replacement costs connected to weak die/packaging material in laptop graphics chip products. Then on Thursday, July 3, shares plunged $5.54, or just over 30 percent, and closed at $12.49. And share prices have continued to fall–though how much of the post-30-percent drop can be attributed to the weak stock market is not clear.

The workforce reduction is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2009 ending October 26, 2008. Nvidia said it will provide employees affected by this reduction with severance packages, counseling, and job
placement services.

Thank you for your letter of February 15, 2008. While I appreciate its courteous tone and value our ongoing dialogue, I am disappointed that you have rejected Electronic Arts Inc.’s (”EA’s”) $25 per share cash offer to acquire Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (”Take-Two”) and declined to engage in the friendly negotiations we proposed. We continue to believe that an acquisition of Take-Two by EA is in the best interests of your shareholders, employees and other constituents, and we remain interested in acquiring Take-Two. So, to further demonstrate our seriousness and encourage you to move forward now, I am writing to increase EA’s offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Take-Two to $26 per share in cash. This offer is subject to Take-Two agreeing by February 22, 2008 to commence negotiation of a definitive merger agreement and to permit EA to commence a limited due diligence review of Take-Two.

The EA letter warned that further Take-Two delay in accepting EA’s proposal could prevent Take-Two’s shareholders and other constituents from realizing its benefits. “There can be no certainty that in the future EA or any other buyer would pay the same high premium we are offering today,” Mr. Riccitiello wrote. The letter added that timely completion of the proposed transaction would allow EA’s strong publishing and distribution network to positively impact the ongoing post-launch sales of GTA IV and support the new Take-Two titles scheduled for launch later in the year and during the holiday selling season.

We believe that Take-Two’s shareholders would not be well-served by any further delay in negotiating and completing the proposed merger. While the videogame industry remains an attractive, high-growth business, the challenges and risks in the business are escalating, and the need for scale is becoming more pronounced. Despite steps taken since March 2007, Take-Two remains dependent on a limited number of titles, and has limited capital resources. In addition, Take-Two faces ongoing financial, legal and operating issues and a very intense competitive environment. Given these factors, we believe it will be increasingly difficult for Take-Two to create sustainable shareholder value and that Take-Two remains exposed to considerable risk of value loss.

The full text of EA’s letter to Take-Two follows:

We also believe that the transaction we are proposing represents a uniquely attractive opportunity for Take-Two’s creative teams and key employees. EA is a diversified leader with well-established franchises and proven intellectual properties, global reach, and significant financial resources. I know we both agree that Take-Two’s talented creative teams deserve a permanent home within a stable and growing publisher that provides these teams an environment to do what they do best - create great games. EA is organized in a four-label model that provides our creative teams the autonomy they need to fully realize their creative ambitions, while also providing a stable and supportive corporate and publishing infrastructure which allows them to best address the global marketplace. We have the resources to make the significant investments in technology and infrastructure needed for the most creative and innovative games in the industry. In short, a combination with EA would provide Take-Two’s studios and employees a combination of the right resources for investment and global reach, and the right environment to do their best work.

Considerable thought, time and resources have been put forth in developing this offer, and our Board of Directors unanimously supports it. Our offer is not conditioned on any financing requirement. It is subject to the satisfactory completion of a due diligence review of Take-Two, the negotiation and execution of mutually acceptable definitive transaction agreements, and the satisfaction of customary conditions to be set forth in such agreements. We are prepared to move forward immediately with formal due diligence and the negotiation and execution of a definitive merger agreement and believe that with adequate access to the necessary information and people, we can complete both in approximately two weeks. We believe that our due diligence review can be completed with minimal disruption, requiring only limited access to a small number of senior executives of Take-Two and its legal, accounting and financial advisors. We also have prepared a draft merger agreement that we can forward to you immediately.

Mr. Strauss Zelnick Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. 622 Broadway New York, NY 10012

We also believe that any delay in this proposed transaction works against the interest of Take-Two’s shareholders, because:

Maybe there’s something in the water but now we’ve got another hostile software battle under way. This time it’s Electronic Arts bidding $2 billion in cash to acquire Take-Two Interactive. The sides are not exactly off to a smashing start with Take Two publicly telling Electronic Arts the offer simply ain’t up to snuff.

We also believe the transaction we are proposing will create value for EA’s shareholders. In addition to the top-line benefits noted above, we can achieve bottom-line benefits by combining Take-Two’s and EA’s corporate and publishing infrastructures and by optimally supporting Take-Two’s creative teams and intellectual properties in EA’s decentralized label structure.

Our strong preference is to conduct a private negotiation. If you are unwilling to proceed on that basis, however, we may pursue other means, including the public disclosure of this letter, to bring our offer and the compelling value it represents to the attention of Take-Two’s shareholders.

John Riccitiello

I am available to meet and discuss any and all aspects of this proposal with you and your Board. Again, we believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to maximize value for Take-Two’s shareholders, and that the combined enterprise would be extraordinarily well positioned to build value for our respective customers, employees, developers and other business partners. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to hearing back from you by February 22.

February 19, 2008

Our revised all-cash offer represents a 64% premium over Take-Two’s most recent closing price and a 63% premium over Take-Two’s 30-day trailing average price (based on prices as of market close on Friday, February 15th). We believe our offer represents a unique and compelling opportunity for Take-Two shareholders to maximize the value of their investment in the company, with materially lower risk than if Take-Two proceeds on a stand-alone basis.

Mr. Riccitiello said today: “Our all-cash proposal is a unique opportunity for Take-Two shareholders to realize immediate value at a substantial premium, while creating long-term value for EA shareholders. Take-Two’s game designers would also benefit from EA’s financial resources, stable, game-focused management team, and strong global publishing capabilities.”

(Update: Check out this piece for more context authored by my News.com colleague Daniel Terdiman.)

Dear Strauss:

Electronic Arts Proposes to Acquire Take-Two Interactive Software for $26 Per Share in Cash, or Approximately $2.0 Billion Proposal Represents 64 Percent Premium to Take-Two’s February 15th Closing Price and 63 Percent Premium to Take-Two’s Closing Price Over the Previous 30 Days REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic Arts Inc. (”EA”) (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that it has proposed to acquire Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (”Take-Two”) (NASDAQ: TTWO) in an all-cash merger valued at approximately $2.0 billion.

EA’s proposal was contained in a letter sent on Feb. 19th by EA Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello to Strauss Zelnick, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Take-Two. The Take-Two Board’s subsequent rejection of the EA proposal led to EA’s decision to release the letter and bring its proposal to the attention of all Take-Two shareholders.

With GTA IV shipping on April 29, development on this important title must now be essentially complete. We believe now is the right time to complete a transaction with minimal disruption for Take-Two.

Here’s the EA press release:

EA’s proposal of $26 per share in cash represents a premium of 64 percent over Take-Two’s closing stock price on Feb. 15th, the last trading day before EA sent its revised proposal to Take-Two, and a 63 percent premium over Take-Two’s 30-day trailing average price over the thirty trading days ending on that date.

Sincerely,

As noted in EA’s Feb. 19th letter, EA’s proposal is not conditioned on any financing requirement. It is, however, subject to certain customary conditions as set forth in the letter. EA’s $26 per share proposal is based on the current equity capitalization of Take-Two. Although EA indicated in the letter that its proposal was subject to negotiations commencing by Feb. 22nd, EA intends to keep its proposal open for the present to give Take-Two’s shareholders and Board of Directors further time to consider it.

To be continued.

There can be no certainty that in the future EA or any other buyer would pay the same high premium we are offering today. We place significant value on the ability to close the transaction relatively quickly so that EA’s strong publishing and distribution network, including our global packaged goods, online and wireless publishing organizations, can positively impact the catalogue sales of GTA IV and also the launch and sale of titles released later this year. We want to work with you and your team to complete the transaction in time to begin realizing its significant marketplace benefits in advance of this year’s holiday selling season. We believe Take-Two’s current share price already reflects investor expectations for a strong release of GTA IV as well as the longer-term issues that Take-Two faces. Once GTA IV ships, Take-Two will again be dependent on less-popular titles and face increasing challenges to compete with larger and better-capitalized competitors.

Chief Executive Officer

One project that has already been completed is the renovation of many of the floodwalls along the various canals that lead into the city. Previously, they were built with what is known as an I-Wall construction. This involved a series of piles coming down from underneath the wall that just drove straight down below the surface, with no additional support on either side. This style of wall was proven to be inadequate for the amount of water that came from Katrina’s storm surge.

The pump system behind the new 17th Street Canal gate is designed to push water out of the canal in case of a hurricane. The idea is to keep the canal from flooding and potentially breaching, as it did during Hurricane Katrina.

Another way is to top the levee with cement splash guards, or armor as Cephus called it. This, too, is designed to keep the walls from eroding from behind.

NEW ORLEANS–When I wrote Wednesday that large parts of this city are still severely damaged from Hurricane Katrina and, in some cases, potentially beyond recovery, I didn’t want to leave the impression that nothing is being done to protect against the next big hurricane.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

But one plan the Corps has for avoiding this is to build what it calls a surge reduction barrier out beyond the mouth of the Bayou Bienvenue, which was part of what flooded the district during Katrina. The barrier would be designed to hold back storm surge that is heading toward the Lower Ninth Ward–as well as New Orleans East and the St. Bernard Parish, which were both also severely damaged by Katrina–from the east. This, however, is only a concept, and no work has been done on it yet.

Whether these new style walls will stand up to the next great hurricane is, of course, unknown. But the Corps and the thousands of New Orleans residents are hopeful that everyone involved has learned from the past and that the pain experienced by so many during and after Hurricane Katrina will never be repeated.

This newly constructed levee protects an affluent neighborhood of New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain, which is just across the street. The levee is made out of a thick clay and will be seeded with grass in order to help prevent erosion of the wall by water that might overtop the levee in the case of a major storm surge.

As I reported Wednesday, the city’s Lower Ninth Ward is still–and is likely to remain for a very long time–a disaster area. Many residents there fear that a future hurricane will result in additional flooding that will wipe away any gains made there.

In fact, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is putting large sums of money and significant effort into helping to reduce the risk that a future storm of Katrina’s magnitude will inundate New Orleans.

As a result, the Corps has developed two systems for dealing with this problem. First is using a thick clay to build the levees and then planting grass on them as a way to build roots that can bind the clay and help prevent the erosion.

Many New Orleans residents think that the Corps has dragged its feet and that it can’t be trusted to do what is necessary to protect the city. But Cephus maintains that the agency is working hard to help prepare for the next giant storm.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

All told, the Corps of Engineers here are working to fix and/or replace 220 miles of levees and floodwalls; build new flood gates and pump stations at the mouths of three outfall canals; and strengthen existing walls and levees at important points. More than $1.2 billion worth of contracts have been awarded for such work.

One of the first things Cephus showed me was a crew working on a levee adjacent to Lake Pontchartrain. The efforts focus on keeping floodwaters from eroding the levee from behind, should the water top it. That type of erosion happened during Katrina, and it’s obviously a serious danger to the city.

As part of Road Trip 2008, I spent several hours this week with Cephus, driving around New Orleans as he showed me a series of the Corps’ major projects.

But some projects are already finished, and others are close. As can be expected with such a complex system–with more than 140 total projects involved–individual pieces will come on line, one after another, over the interim period.

As a result, the Corps built–and began operation of in 2006–what is known as an outfall canal closure structure. This is essentially a gate that is 27 feet tall, 12 feet wide and 15 inches thick and features 280 tons of reinforced steel and can be shut down in the case of a hurricane and which, it is hoped, will prevent a major storm surge from inundating the canal.

This new gate system is designed to protect New Orleans from storm surge that would push up through the 17th Street Canal, which breached during Hurricane Katrina.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Of course, the Corps wants New Orleans’ residents to know that nothing it can do will guarantee their protection. In fact, Corps public information officer Randall Cephus told me that the agency’s efforts have been rebranded as risk management rather than hurricane protection because of a sense that the latter gave people a false impression that they would surely be safe in a Katrina-level event.

A second source of flooding during Katrina was a breach in the city’s 17th Street Canal.

Of course, if such a storm were to happen in the next couple of years, there could be serious problems. That’s because the entire body of risk prevention work that the Corps is doing here isn’t expected to be completed until 2011. And some question even that date.

The system also includes a series of major pumps designed to push water that does get through–either from topping the gate or from torrential rains–back out of the canal and into Lake Pontchartrain. The hope is that by doing so, the floodwalls along the canal will never be breached again.

Now, the Corps has updated the walls with what is called a T-Wall construction. This system involves piles driven as far as 67 feet below the surface, as well as a series of diagonal steel support beams on either side that go down as far as 110 feet.

Cephus said it’s important to recognize is that no single piece of the risk prevention system can itself protect the whole city from a future hurricane. Rather, he pointed out, it is a complex system made up of innumerable parts, each of which shoulders the burden for a piece of the puzzle.

And while there is certainly a significant amount of distrust of the Corps’ past, present, and future efforts, it cannot be said that the organization is doing nothing.

Adding multiple files at the same time works a lot like Flickr's uploader, except you can pick whatever files you want. Videos, photos, and music files are automatically stuck into your media library.

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CNET Networks)

Updating plug-ins is now a one-button affair. If you're a control freak, there's also a download link you can put onto your server via FTP.

One-click plug-in upgrades: Like software on PCs, third-party WordPress plugins are updated constantly. The one thing you had to manage on your own was when they got updated. The new system cross checks your plug-ins with the database at Wordpress.org, and if there’s an update it will both let you know, as well as give you a one click option to update it to the latest version.

Tags management: The new system lets you add and delete tags as you would on Flickr, or anywhere else using the same system of comma separated tags. The old system simply had you list the tags, but there was no way to edit or see a list of all the tags you had used, which is now maintained in the “manage” tab.

Dashboard redesign: I never really thought the old dashboard was bad, but the new one is visually much cleaner and rearranges the settings options away from the links to write and manage posts. It also takes some of the information that was on the old dashboard and widgetizes it, which makes it easier to get a bird’s eye view of what’s going on with your blog all on one page.

Editing protection: The lack of concurrent editing is one thing that created massive headaches and potential data loss for multiauthored blogs. Say you were writing or editing a post and your co-blogger went into edit it. Both of you could overwrite each other’s work endlessly without knowing the other person was in there. The new system locks down a post when a user is still in edit mode, and gives you the person’s name so you can message them in real-life to see what they’re doing. We’ve got a similar system here at CNET, and it’s a life saver.

I spent some time this weekend updating my personal blog to WordPress 2.5 which was released Saturday. I’ve been a WordPress user for a while now, and it’s worth noting that version 2.5 is one of the biggest updates since the release of version 2.0 back in late 2005. There’s a huge list of upgrades on the official WordPress blog, but I thought I’d go over a few of my personal favorites so far:

Media handling: The new media uploader is a huge step up from the old system. It now lets you upload multiple files at once. Each file uploads with its own progress bar and goes into your media collection to be inserted into posts according to your liking. What I really like, however, is the new gallery feature. You can take all those pictures and put them into an easy to view gallery that can be inserted into a post with one click. It’s not as flashy as some of the gallery tools you can get as plug-ins, but it’s great to have as a standard solution.

There are a handful of other useful updates and additions, but these were just some of our picks. Are you a WordPress user running 2.5? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

Tags can now be deleted and managed on the fly.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

(Credit:
CompUSA)

It’s pretty rare to find a 22-inch LCD selling for below $200 with no rebate required, but that’s exactly what CompUSA has this morning: the Soyo DYLM2284 for $199.99. It’s a new unit, not a refurb, and did I mention there’s no rebate?

So, how’s the picture? Alas, reviews are as rare as a 22-inch LCD for under $200, though it did receive five stars from one user on CompUSA’s site. Plus, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, so the risk is fairly minimal. If you’re still suffering through your workday with a 19- or (horrors) 17-inch display, here’s your chance to upgrade on the cheap.

The monitor features VGA and DVI inputs (alas, no HDMI), built-in speakers, a 5ms response time (great for games and movies), and a native resolution of 1680×1050. Ground shipping will run you about $15.

Samsung ARM roadmap

Samsung ARM processor

The roadmap shows the ARM Cortex-ABN core achieving 800MHz in 2008 and 1GHz in 2009. Samsung is also slated to transition from 90-nanometer technology to 65nm later this year and 45nm in the latter half of 2009, according to the road map.

Apple is expected to bring out new models later this year that offer better performance and support 3G for faster broadband connections.

“The agreement is an extension of the previous subscription license and will enable Samsung to obtain early access to new technology, including the recently announced ARM Cortex-A9 processor, and broad access to a wide range of ARM IP,” according to a joint release. Samsung will use the technology in future products aimed at the wireless, digital consumer, and mobile internet device markets, the company said in a statement.

Samsung is not necessarily a shoo-in, according to Quirk. Though there is a very good chance Apple will continue to use Samsung, he pointed to the fate of media processor supplier PortalPlayer–which generated 90 percent of its sales
from
Apple’s iPod: it was dropped from the iPod (though, ironically, Samsung picked up some of this business). On another front, Quirk expects future iPhones to use new Bluetooth/Wi-Fi technology from Marvell Technology.

Samsung’s ARM chip road map may contain signposts to future
iPhone processors. On Tuesday, ARM Holdings and Samsung Electronics extended their Strategic Long-Term Licensing Agreement, allowing Samsung to retain access to key ARM processor IP. For the iPhone, this may result in faster, more powerful models. Samsung currently makes the main processor, based on an ARM11 design, in the Apple iPhone.

In a November 2007 interview with IDG News Service, ARM’s CEO Warren East, said “there will be iPhone II, III…if we do our job right, then [iPhones] will be based on future ARM products.” Though the main iPhone processor has taken on an Area-51 Hanger 18 aura of mystery, even after countless teardowns, one thing is clear: it is an ARM1176 core, similar to Samsung’s S5L8900. “We have looked at the die markings inside the package itself and the die markings have a number of ‘S5L8900′ and as near as I can tell that’s what the processor is,” said Greg Quirk at Semiconductor Insights. Samsung, historically tight-lipped about any iPhone-related questions, could not be reached for comment.

(Credit:
Samsung Semiconductor)

(Credit:
Samsung Semiconductor)