You’ve probably heard the buzz-word “Cloud Computing” tossed around recently.  Cloud Computing is the next big thing in remote and distributed computing and is very much in fashion now for many industry bellwethers like IBM, Sun, Amazon, Google and storage giants like EMC.  You don’t have to have a degree in IT to see it coming together.  If you’ve played around with Gmail or Google Docs, even as an end user, you’ve already seen the beginnings of something big, really big. 

Antec today announced the Signature Series, its newest and most advanced
family of power supply units. Available in 850 Watts and 650 Watts, the Signature Series features several cutting-edge innovations that set it above the competition, several of which have never been offered in a consumer power supply. The Signature 650 and Signature 850 are available now and will retail for
estimated street prices of $249.00 and $299.00, respectively.

The Signature Series utilizes active DC-to-DC voltage regulation as opposed to the standard passive magnetic amplifier method, providing for shorter transient response times and greater system stability. The Signature Series' transient response times can be as low as 10 microseconds, in contrast to the standard power
supply transient times of 1000 microseconds (1 millisecond). In addition,
the Signature Series boasts an advanced cooling system with a Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) fan. By adapting its speed to the power output of the unit,
a PWM controlled fan can run at speeds as low as 15% of its maximum, as
opposed to a traditional fan which can only run at about 40%, thus ensuring
the quietest possible operation.

Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers today, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista.

Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally “downgrade” to XP. Microsoft will still allow smaller mom-and-pop PC builder shops to buy XP for resale through the end of January. A version of XP will also remain available for ultra-low-cost PCs such as the Asus Eee PC.

Mozilla's Firefox 3.0 browser uses memory much more efficiently than its rivals, according to an independent tester who wrote a memory-monitoring utility to track usage by Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE), Flock, Opera and Safari.

The poorest marks went to Apple's Safari 3 .1 for Windows — Allen tested only the Windows versions of each browser — which consistently consumed more memory the longer it was used. “Safari on Windows shows extremely poor memory management,” he said. Other browsers, including Microsoft's IE 8 Beta 1, Flock's Flock 2.0, and Opera Software's Opera 9.5, were in the middle, memory management-wise, he argued.

South Korean display maker Samsung SDI Co said on Monday it would boost production of next-generation organic displays to six times the current level by mid-2009, spending $529 million in the process. The move comes as leading panel makers try to grab a piece of the fast-growing market for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AM-OLED) displays, which make better-quality, slimmer and more energy-efficient screens than liquid crystal displays.

Samsung SDI, which produces small-sized AM-OLED screens used in handheld devices, said in a filing with the local exchange that it would invest 551.8 billion won ($528.6 million) until mid-2009 to expand its AM-OLED output. When the investment is completed, its production capacity will reach 9 million units a month in 2-inch screen terms, compared with 1.5 million currently, the company said. Other makers are also moving fast to launch OLED products and build scale.

Asustek is planning to launch new Eee PC models, the 904 and 905, which have an 8.9-inch panel but use a similar chassis and keyboard as the company's 10.2-inch models, according to sources at channel vendors.

The Eee PC 904 and 905 will adopt Atom processors and the major difference between the two and the previous 901 model is that they feature a bigger keyboard. Asustek is still evaluating whether to make changes to the two models' battery and storage capacity. The company expects the Eee PC 904 ad 905 to come out at a similar price range as the current 900 and 901, and will eventually replace them. Asustek is also considering whether to drop prices for the 900 and 901 to completely clear its inventory or leave them in the market to defend against Acer's Aspire One, noted the sources.

InfoWorld amassed 210,000 signatures for a “Save Windows XP” petition, and forwarded it to CEO Steve Ballmer. Today is the date when Microsoft officially ends the availability of its last generation Operating System, and hopes that everybody gravitates to its current OS, Vista. It’s unlikely that Microsoft is going to change its corporate mind at this point, but the petition points out a glaring irony: A Microsoft OS is immensely popular, and has the kind of rabid support usually reserved for the little penguin,

Andy Grove was once the Chairman of Intel, and is widely considered one of the best minds in American management. Time’s Man of the Year for 1997 isn’t spending his retirement from the chipmaker doing nothing; he’s championing a push to get plug-in hybrid cars on the road ASAP.During the past year and a half, Grove has created his own crash course in electric power, plug-in hybrid vehicles and finding ways of shifting the nation’s fleet of vehicles from gasoline. His goal: To draw more attention to electric

According to training materials leaked on the Web, the Palm Treo 800w is powered by a 333MHz processor (specific make unknown) and weighs just under 5-ounces.  The data port will also be a standard microUSB port, not the Palm docking port that so many users have complained about for years (and years and years). 

The documents also confirm that the 800w will be released by Sprint on July 13, as expected.  Find out more about the Palm Treo 800w…

LifeLock, which is an ID theft protection surface, but which has both been written about earlier in unflattering terms as well as sued by Experian, has been sued again, this time by a competitor. On Wednesday NAMESAFE sued LifeLock over search ads that it said were purchased by LifeLock, which used the NAMESAFE trademark yet directed users to LifeLock’s web site. According to a press release issued by NameSafe on Friday, “We have discovered that LifeLock has been sponsoring advertisements on most major search