Kingston Technology has agreed to act as a guarantor for ProMOS Technologies' application for a syndicated loan of NT$5 billion (US$148 million) from nine local banks, according to industry sources. Kingston has agreed to guarantee NT$1.5-2 billion of the loan in support of the cash-strapped DRAM maker.

The loan is expected to help ProMOS redeem its euro convertible bonds (ECBs) by the February 14 deadline, the sources said. ProMOS has said via a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) on February 3 that the company's NT$5 billion loan application was being evaluated by the banks, which required ProMOS to collateralize its production equipment and to find guarantors. The company did not reveal further details.

Google Maps has been able to display your approximate location since November of 2007. Starting today, Google’s location feature has been expanded to allow you to also see where your friends and family are as well with Google’s new Google Latitude feature. As this can be seen as a potential privacy issue (stalkers need not apply), Google has made this feature an entirely opt-in service, and users have “fine-grained” control over who can see their location information and what specific location information others

EMC and Microsoft Extend Strategic Alliance Through 2011 to Deliver Efficient Information Infrastructures and Empower Workers EMC CEO Joe Tucci and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showcase deep technology collaboration at New York CIO Summit. NEW YORK — Feb. 3, 2009 — EMC and Microsoft Corp. today announced a three-year extension of their strategic alliance through 2011. The two companies are committing to broader and deeper product interoperability and service delivery to address key customer requirements

Given that 192GB solid state drives aren’t exactly everywhere, Transcend’s latest offering sure caught our attention. Just days after introducing a new pair of external storage devices, the company has officially announced its 192GB high-speed 2.5-inch SATA II SSD. Said drive is made of reliable NAND flash memory and includes a powerful new controller which enables the MLC (multi-level cell) device to easily outpace traditional 2.5-inch HDDs. More specifically, the drive promises sustained read / write speeds

Gelid Solutions has designed the Silent Spirit, a top-flow CPU cooler, to be silent and to perform better than retail boxed CPU coolers. The open frame structure that is set to a unique orientation angle is said to be best for airflow. Read on to see if this cooler runs silently and cools as the corporate site says it does.

A story covering the upcoming (Feb. 15) launch of the iPhone 3G in the United Arab Emirates seems to confirm the suspected launch date of the next version of the iPhone. The story, in Business24-7, states (emphasis ours): The latest 3G model will become available on February 15 according to Dow Jones, and etisalat will be targeting private and business users. Both post-paid and prepaid subscribers will be able to use the product and voice, data and SMS services will be available. And the next version of the

Tacitly acknowledging the problems its had getting people to adopt Windows Vista vs. Windows XP, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it will be selling upgrade versions from Windows XP to Windows 7. However, the upgrade will really only apply to pricing; there won’t be a way to do an in-place install of Windows 7 over Windows XP. Instead, the end user will have to do a fresh install of Windows 7. In an email, a company spokeswoman said: “Regarding XP, customers can purchase upgrade media and an upgrade license to

Tacitly acknowledging the problems its had getting people to adopt Windows Vista vs. Windows XP, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it will be selling upgrade versions from Windows XP to Windows 7. However, the upgrade will really only apply to pricing; there won’t be a way to do an in-place install of Windows 7 over Windows XP. Instead, the end user will have to do a fresh install of Windows 7. In an email, a company spokeswoman said: “Regarding XP, customers can purchase upgrade media and an upgrade license to

EA Announces New Ship Date for The Sims 3 REDWOOD CITY, Calif., February 3, 2009 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that The Sims 3, the highly-anticipated flagship game from the best-selling PC franchise, The Sims will launch across the PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch and mobile devices summer 2009. The Sims 3 PC will ship to store shelves worldwide starting June 2, 2009.”The Sims 3 is an incredible game that lets you play with life, create art and show off your creations,” said Ben Bell, Executive

Is Skynet nearly upon us?A Japanese program has been created that finishes people’s sentences, according to a report in New Scientist.A team from the National Instititute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba developed it and they claim it’s virgin territory. There have been plenty of speech recognition software programs in the past, and they’ve gotten a bad rep, though the technology has improved immensely in recent years.This however, takes a step past simple speech recognition and finishes