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CNET News.com Staff   Year:May 19, 2006 3:12 PM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

Announced at CES last year, this ingenious little SD card comes with a built-in USB adapter and--if you havent seen it already--will have you swooning in no time. In general, storage prices have plummeted and this version of the card, which cost around $150 when it was first released, has come way down in price. Amazon has it on sale for the cheapest price of all the online dealers we checked, and shipping via ground is free. What: SanDisk 1GB Ultra II SD Plus USB How much: $45.91 Shipping: Free Where: Amazon.com When: While supplies last Click here for review of the 512MB equivalent. ...

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Anne Broache   Year:May 19, 2006 1:54 PM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

Dell Computer has scored a critical court victory over a company that holds a controversial patent claimed to cover global e-commerce itself. A federal district court judge in Virginia concluded last week that parts of the patent, issued to a company called DE Technologies, were too "indefinite" and granted part of Dells request to declare the patent invalid. In legal filings, the invention is described as a "transaction system for facilitating computer-to-computer commercial transactions by integrating certain functions to enable international purchases of goods over Internet." DE Technologies, a small Virginia firm, was awarded the patent for use in what it calls its "Borderless Order Entry System" in 2002, five years after it originally filed its application. It accused Dell of infr...

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CNET News.com Staff   Year:May 19, 2006 1:36 PM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

Stormy Shippy, who is first in line for the grand opening of Manhattans new Apple retail store, told a CNET News.com reporter, "Theres really no explanation why any of us are here. Its just fun to be here and meet all the other people in line," he said. Shippy was joined by dozens of Mac fans eager to be first inside the store. Apple enjoys high returns on its brick-and-mortar retail stores; it reports earning $4,000 per square foot, compared to $300 per square foot pulled in by Target stores, according to Ron Johnson, senior vice president of retail for Apple. Read more about the grand opening here. ...

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Jonathan Skillings   Year:May 19, 2006 11:45 AM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

The newest recruits in the hunt for pirated movies: a pair of black Labrador retrievers. NPR reported Friday that the Motion Picture Association of America and the Federation Against Copyright Theft, a British group, recently tried out the canines at a FedEx facility at an airport in the U.K. Flo and Lucky, the dogged duo, had a 100 percent success rate in sniffing out parcels containing DVDs. You and I dont have the nose for the job, but apparently they can pick up a "plume of scent" from the polycarbonates, lacquers and resins used in the discs. What the dogs cant do, at least not yet, is distinguish between legitimate DVDs and those with pirated flicks. They just find the DVD-laden packages, and its up to humans to sort it out from there. ...

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Mike Yamamoto   Year:May 19, 2006 11:23 AM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

It hasnt been an easy year for the IT staff at the State Department. First, the purchase of 16,000 Lenovo computers prompted calls for an investigation because theyre made by a Chinese company and could conceivably be equipped for espionage or other mischief. Then this week, the department reportedly decided to avoid using the computers to handle for classified information just in case. There are several farcical elements here, but lets start with one of the most obvious: Many computers and related components used in the federal government have been manufactured in China for years, by some well-known U.S. brands no less. Second, isolation of the hardware is no guarantee of security; if the PCs are connected to an internal network where classified information is stored somewhere,...

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Margaret Kane   Year:May 19, 2006 7:18 AM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

Viewers just cant get enough of "Lost," apparently. Disney CEO Bob Iger said this week that viewers have watched ABC television shows available online about 3 million times since the network launched a two-month trial earlier this year. The shows are offered with commercials that viewers must watch. When asked, Iger said the network is considering charging for some shows. ABC currently sells ad-free versions of some shows through iTunes. Bloggers seemed hopeful that the success of the ABC trial could be a sign that more streaming options would be on the way. Blog community response: "At Tuesdays ABC upfront, Anne Sweeney said more than 2 million streams had been served since the May 1 start of ABC.coms full-episode trial. Fast forward a mere two days to Disney CEO Bob Iger te...

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Mike Yamamoto   Year:May 19, 2006 7:00 AM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

Much to our surprise, workplace advice has emerged as one of the more popular themes in Blogma postings, though they are almost always addressed at the worker bees among us. So we thought it was only fair that we direct some thoughts upward, through this insightful post by Pamela Slim, which offers 10 essential points that every boss should heed. ...

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Mike Yamamoto   Year:May 19, 2006 4:00 AM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

If ever there was a TV show that lent itself to conspiracy theories, it would be "24." But rarely have we seen a theory that dwells in such excrutiating minutiae as the appearance of numbers on the shows ubiquitous digital clock. ...

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Rafe Needleman   Year:May 18, 2006 5:03 PM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

I believe the world has a sufficient supply of photo- and video-sharing services, but that isnt stopping companies from trying to nab a slice of the market. Case in point: VMix, a video-sharing site that offers the usual video upload and viewing features (as well as a camera phone upload feature--YouTube was not the first). Its special power: an easy way to turn a bunch of photos into a slide show, with a music track, and slow zooms and crossovers like a Ken Burns documentary. You can do this with iPhoto on a Mac, too, but VMix works on a PC (or a Mac), and it works over the Web--no software is required. Its a clever tool for adding life to photos. See my take at a slide show. Youre in control of the pacing and the captions, and the capability to add music makes a big difference in emot...

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Jennifer Guevin   Year:May 18, 2006 4:54 PM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

Dell surprised the industry today when it announced during its first-quarter earnings call that it would incorporate AMD processors into its servers by the end of the year. There had been speculation for years about whether the embattled PC maker would ever abandon its years-long exclusive use of Intel processors. The deal is limited to the companys servers for now, but its not outside the realm of possibility that it will add AMD chips to its products further down the road. Early reaction in the blogosphere shows users are largely pleased with the news. AMD has shown improved results in benchmarking tests compared to Intels chips. But some see the move as too little too late for Dell, which has seen a slump in market share and income. Last week, a Hewlett-Packard exec said the ...

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Michael Kanellos   Year:May 18, 2006 4:29 PM PDT   Source Site:newsblog

In the next few days, a lot of people are going to claim that they predicted the deal between Dell and AMD. And the one constant is that no one really did. To recap, Dell on Thursday said it would adopt Opteron chips from Advanced Micro Devices for four-way servers. Its not a huge market--only a few of these get sold a quarter. But these machines sell for a lot and can be profitable. Its also a market that AMD has done particularly well in lately to Intels detriment. By picking AMD for this sliver of the market, Dell can improve its standing against IBM and HP and at the same time not cut its purchases from Intel much, thus preserving those nice volume discounts from Intel. A lot of people said it made sense for Dell to adopt AMD chips, but there certainly werent a lot of "Dell t...

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