Sometimes journalists don’t just report the news, they become a part of it. Such is the case with New York Time reporter Saul Hansell. Back in May, Hansell reported on a spat between Google and the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) trade group over Google’s refusal to add a link to its privacy policy on the Google homepage. The NAI felt that such a link was part of it charter, and Google was applying to become a member of the NAI. Google, on the other hand, was adamant about keeping its homepage as sparse

Microsoft only has a few cash cows, but they’re enormous cash cows. Their suite of Office programs isn’t cheap, and many users just root around for old discs or pirated versions when they’re loading up a new PC. Microsoft is trying out offering the software as a service (SaaS) for a $70 per year subscription price, along with a few goodies like their antivirus software. It might be the wave of the future for the Redmond, Washington giant. Subscription pricing for software has become commonplace in businesses

Happy 4th of July to all of our readers.   Enjoy the long weekend.

Okay, we get it: Google wants to be everywhere–even on your iPhone. For ultra chic techliciousness, Google and the iPhone together, it’s a perfect match–like chocolate and peanut butter. But sometimes Google misses the mark, and that’s exactly what it’s done with its newly released Google Talk for the iPhone. “We’ve just released in the US a new version of Google Talk designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch browsers. In addition to sending your friends Gmail messages from your iPhone, you can now

A new study (.PDF) released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that not everyone wants broadband. Seriously. According to the study, 55% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, up from 47% in 2007. Also according to the study, with the increase in broadband adoption, only 10% of Americans have dial-up. Whoa: that means 35% have no Internet access at all, if we did the math correctly. For those without broadband, the study gave the following reasons for

A study on laptop loss at airports was just released, and we don’t know what is more depressing: how many laptops are “lost” at the airport, how few of the “lost” laptops have their data protected, or how few of the “lost” laptops are ever recovered. The Airport Insecurity: The Case of Lost Laptops report was conducted by the Ponemon Institute and was sponsored by Dell. The report finds that “business travelers lose more than 12,000 laptops per week in U.S. airports.” That works out to over 62,400 laptops per

The word on the street is that anonymous tips can play a critical role in police solving crimes. Often the anonymous tips actually alert the police to the existence of crimes in the first place. But how do the cops get those tips? The days of paid informants like Huggy Bear meeting Starsky & Hutch in the back of dark alleys is over, and modern technology is shepherding in a whole new way to narc on your neighbors. The Associated Press (AP) recently reported on how police departments are now starting to rely

Following the recent launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 GPUs, AMD plans to introduce the high-end dual-GPU HD 4870 X2 by the end of July, according to sources at graphics card vendors. This is bad news for NVIDIA as they might lose the performance lead when it comes to discrete desktop gaming graphics cards.

In mid-August, AMD will also begin shipping the 4870 X2 (RV770XT) GPU to partners wishing to design custom cards, the sources added. HD 4870 X2 graphics cards are expected to be priced around US$499, the sources detailed.

Video:Sapphire 1024MB Radeon HD3850 Graphics Card Review @ Bigbruin.comZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition Video Card @ BmRPoint of View GeForce GTX 260 Assassins Creed Edition @ techPowerUpVisiontek ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card Review @ Motherboards.orgATI Radeon HD 4870 On Linux @ PhoronixMotherboards and Chipsets:AMD 780G/780V/740G Integrated Socket AM2+ Chipsets @ Digit-LifeProcessors:AMD Phenom X4 In Real-Life Applications @  Digit-LifeAMD Phenom X4 9950 BE & 9350e Review

NVIDIA Corporation stated that it would take a $150 million to $200 million charge against cost of revenue to cover anticipated customer warranty, repair, return, replacement and other consequential costs and expenses arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of our previous generation MCP and GPU products used in notebook systems. All newly manufactured products and all products currently shipping in volume have a different and more robust material set. NVIDIA has not made an official comment as to what notebooks are impacted or even what products are having issues. I've personally seen an increase in the number of dead MXM notebook video cards this year, so this explains a ton. Ever priced a replacement video card for the Dell M1710 or 1730 notebook? You better have at least $500 on hand!

The previous generation MCP and GPU products that are impacted were included in a number of notebook products that were shipped and sold in significant quantities. Certain notebook configurations of these MCP and GPU products are failing in the field at higher than normal rates. While we have not been able to determine a root cause for these failures, testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination, system thermal management designs, and customer use patterns are contributing factors. We have developed and have made available for download a software driver to cause the system fan to begin operation at the powering up of the system and reduce the thermal stress on these chips. We have also recommended to our customers that they consider changing the thermal management of the MCP and GPU products in their notebook system designs. We intend to fully support our customers in their repair and replacement of these impacted MCP and GPU products that fail.