Asia and Pacific: Samsung unveils clamshell gaming phone
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Following in Nokia Corp.'s footsteps, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. this week released its own version of a gaming cell phone. Samsung has come up with a slightly new form factor for its phone and has chosen to modify the clamshell design it favors for many of its handsets.
On the SCH-V450, Samsung has switched the position of some of the keys on the phone: a small joystick and function keys typically sit above the number keypad on many clamshell phones, but these have been placed below the number keys on the new model. They have also been raised and the top half of the clam shell shortened so that when the phone is closed it covers only the number keypad; the joystick and function keys remain accessible.
The phone features a chip designed to support 3D (three- dimensional) graphics and gaming (...).The phone comes with three games installed, and users can download additional games from a Samsung Web site. The company did not indicate if there is an additional charge for downloading games.
Its main display offers a resolution of 176 pixels by 220 pixels, along with a sub-display with 128 pixel by 128 pixel resolution. The phone supports CDMA2000 1x EvDO and includes a camera with 310,000 pixel resolution. Other features include an MP3 player and the ability to alter the screen image to match the mood and speed of music, Samsung Electronics said in a statement.
The mobile phone went on sale in South Korea early this week with a price tag of around US$500.
The company has no plans to launch the SCH-V450 overseas, but Samsung will introduce a number of game-focused phones in international markets later this year, including the SGH-P730, which will be the company's first megapixel-class GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handset, and will also have embedded 3D games. It will be launched in Eu-rope and Asia in August, she said.
Asia and Pacific: Panasonic shows IPv6 camera, printer
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Matsushita Electric Indus-trial Co. Ltd., better known by its Panasonic brand name, has unveiled a network camera and printer that offer support for IPv6, the latest version of the Internet Protocol.
The devices, one of which will go on sale soon and one of which is a prototype, were unveiled in Tokyo this week at the Networld+Interop 2004 Tokyo exhibition.
Matsushita already sells several network cameras and the BB-HCM311 looks similar to an existing model, but comes with two major upgrades, one of which is IPv6 support. The second upgrade is a microphone on the front of the camera case which enables audio to be picked up and transmitted alongside the video back to the monitoring point.
The camera measures 100 millimeters square and is 73.5 millimeters deep and requires no external control unit. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6 and ID/password and IPsec security. It can transmit full quality VGA (640 pixels by 480 pixels) at 12 frames per second or quarter-quality VGA (QVGA, 320 pixels by 240 pixels) and 160 pixels by 120 pixels resolution video at 30 frames per second.
The video and audio is streamed across an Ethernet connection. The camera can also be connected to an external speaker so a two-way conversation can be conducted. Other features include the ability to control the pan and tilt of the camera from a remote monitoring point.
There is also an SD memory card slot in the side of the camera and the device can be set up to record images at predetermined intervals onto the card. Set to record one image per second, Matsushita's 1G-byte SD Card has enough capacity to record 42 days of images.
Matsushita also used the exhibition to show a prototype color- laser printer with native support for IPv6. The device is the first such printer to earn the IPv6 Ready logo, according to the company.
The camera will go on sale in Japan on August 3 and be priced at (US$650). The company said it has not decided launch plans for the printer.
Asia and Pacific: Microsoft touts Virtual Server as NT migration tool
By Nadia Cameron, ARNnet
Microsoft Corp. is pushing its upcoming Virtual Server 2005 software as the means for partners to migrate customers from NT Server 4.0 systems across to Windows Server 2000 and 2003.
Microsoft Australia product manager for servers, Michael Leworthy, said Virtual Server 2005 would give partners a new way to help customers virtually consolidate their servers. More importantly, however, the software could be used to help customers still working on an NT server platform move across to Microsoft's current and future server platforms, he said.
Virtual Server 2005 is a server-based application that allows users to run different operating systems virtually on a single hardware server. Although the application only runs on Windows Server 2003, it can host a range of x86-based operating systems, including Windows NT, Linux, Unix and OS/2.
Microsoft will release two editions of Virtual Server 2005 at its Australian TechEd conference in Canberra in August: Enterprise (up to 32 processors) and Standard (up to four processors).
Leworthy said up to 25 per cent of Microsoft server customers were still operating on a NT 4.0 platform. Of these, some 60 per cent were still running line of business applications incompatible with the newer 2000 or 2003 server pro-ducts, including Microsoft's Exchange 5.5 and SQL 7, as well as third-party business applications.
Using Virtual Server 2005, customers could continue to run these applications on a virtual NT environment, underlined by a Windows 2000 or 2003 platform.
This would give customers the benefit of the additional performance, resources, and stronger management and security buffers promised by the newer server software, while also taking away the costs of running multiple NT 4.0 server boxes, Leworthy said.
It would also free up funds to invest in upgrading business applications or buying newer software products, he said.
Microsoft was now working with a selection of partners and customers to determine whether Virtual Server 2005 could be offered as a no-cost migration tool to assist customers to transition from NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2000/2003, Leworthy said. (...)
Asia and Pacific: Fujitsu unveils combo wireless IP, cellular phone
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has developed a prototype wireless IP (Internet Protocol) telephone handset that can also be used with conventional cellular telephone networks. "The design of all mobile phones is dependent on the carrier," said Hideki Mitsunobu, of Fujitsu Laboratories. "We can't use any software or any service because the carrier has to guard the security of its network but with this handset we can use anything easily."
The secret of the handset is a Compact Flash card slot in the top of the device into which various cellular network cards can be inserted. A GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) module can be inserted and the handset will work on GSM networks, a PHS (Personal Handyphone System) module inserted and it will work on Japan's PHS network, for example. Wireless LAN support is built into the handset and so is always available.
Because the cellular network interface is in a card that's already been approved by the carrier or relevant authorities, the rest of the handset requires no special approval and so can be customized or loaded with whatever software the user requires. The base operating system of the prototype is Windows CE .Net version 4.2.
It was jointly developed by Fujitsu with Net-2Com Corp., a venture company started from Fujitsu in 2000. It is likely to be offered first by Net-2Com and will be targeted at corporations for use in association with a Fujitsu-developed telephone system.
When within range of a wireless LAN, be it the corporate network or any public or private hotspot, the handset communicates with a server and provides its current location. On receipt of an incoming call, the Fujitsu telephone system can direct it across the Internet to the handset. Should the handset be out of range or an Internet connection not possible, it defaults to a cellular network connection. Calls from the handset can be handled in the same way, said Fukuyama.
The handset features a 2.2-inch color LCD (liquid crystal display) with QVGA resolution (240 pixels by 320 pixels) and runs on an Intel Corp. PXA273 processor. It measures 48 millimeters by 17 millimeters by 134 millimeters.
No price for the handset has yet been set however Mitsunobu noted it is likely to cost more than a cellular telephone because there will be no carrier subsidiary.
America: Windows for Opteron beta doesn't support Nocona
By Tom Krazit and Robert McMillan, IDG News Service (Boston Bureau)
Customers can now purchase workstations using Intel Corp.'s Nocona¿ Xeon processor, with 64-bit extensions to the x86 instruction set, but they can't run the beta 64-bit version of Windows designed for those extensions on the new workstations.
The publicly available beta version of Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems can only be installed on systems with Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (AMD's) Opteron and Athlon 64 processors. During the operating system installation process, Win-dows checks to see whether or not it is being installed on an AMD sysstem. If it is not, the software cannot be installed, the spokesman said.
Microsoft's developers "essentially required the AMD chips to work with the operating system, just simply because they hadn't tested with any other chips," he said. Independent hardware reviewer Andrew Miller highlighted the incompatibilities in his review of a new Nocona workstation at his Web site (www.spodesabode.com), one of a very few Nocona reviews (...).
The public beta for 64-bit Extended Systems was released in September 2003, before Intel had announced its plans to release the Nocona core. It has not been updated since then, and Microsoft's engineers wanted to ensure the beta operating system provided the same customer experience on Intel's chip as it does for AMD's chip before certifying it for Intel's chips.
There are some small differences between the instruction sets used in the two chips. Intel, for example, does not support AMD's 3DNow graphics instructions. Intel uses hyperthreading technology in its Xeon processors, but AMD does not.
AMD also uses two instructions designed to improve Opteron's ability to quickly switch back and forth between applications. The additional instructions were added after AMD published its design papers that Intel used to create the architecture for the Nocona chip. The instructions don't increase performance to any significant degree that most users would notice, according to analysts. (...)
Microsoft is working on a new public release of the 64-bit beta operating system, the company spokesman said, but customers who have access to Microsoft's Tech Beta program will be able to preview the 64-bit operating system on Intel-based workstations. (...)
A beta version of Windows compatible with Intel's 64-bit extensions technology is expected to be released by the end of next month, according to sources close to Microsoft. Intel is planning to introduce a server chipset for its Nocona Xeon processors in August, right around the time the new beta version is expected.
(...) Intel and Microsoft have promised that the final versions of both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit extended systems will run on Xeon and Opteron servers without any hitches. The production version of the operating system is expected in the fourth quarter.
America: Seclarity's hardwired network security
By Oliver Rist, InfoWorld (US)
Truly revolutionary products are rare, but Seclarity Inc.'s SiNic product line comes close. By integrating encryption and authentication with its 10/100 NICs, wireless cards, and console products, Seclarity offers an alternative to network-encryption schemes, such as SSH tunneling, that's completely transparent to the end-user. SiNic not only makes security simple, but it also allows administrators to easily manage the entire network security policy from a single console, including firewall services, encryption, and security auditing.
Each SiNic card can be centrally controlled, but doesn't need to be in constant contact with the management console. After rules and roles are downloaded to the SiNic, contact is needed only if a user initiates authentication against the SiNic's local authentication data-base. Each SiNic automatically generates and maintains its own certificate, making the overall PKI hassle-free.
Central management also relieves some of the headaches of 802.1x, because the SiNic suite supports LDAP directory management and authentication. Admins can enforce security policies based on node, group, or software service - a capability that locks down access both from within and without. (...)