Microsoft Resumes WP7 Update

Microsoft has begun updating Samsung’s Windows Phone 7-based smartphones again, after earlier technical problems forced a stop to the process, it said in a blog post Wednesday.

The update was initially announced Feb. 21, and doesn’t provide any new functionality, but rather improves the software update process itself, according to Microsoft.

However, after some users of Samsung phones began experiencing problems, Microsoft decided to temporarily suspend the update program.

The problems have been pinpointed and fixed, the blog post said, but it didn’t provide any details on what the issues were. At the same time, Microsoft has continued to update Windows Phone 7-based smartphones from other vendors. Read More…

Windows 7 SP 1 Released Into The Wild

As we have stated in the past, Microsoft officially rolled out the final release of Windows 7 yesterday to the general public. 

Microsoft says Windows 7 SP1 includes all the previous security, performance and stability updates, as well as some major improvements to features and services to make Windows 7 perform even better. Microsoft advised users to use the regular Windows update process, although manual download will probably be the faster way to go.  Read More……

Microsoft Offers Windows Azure Trial

Microsoft is offering up to 750 free hours of use on its Azure service to lure developers into trying cloud computing, the company announced Tuesday.

“This extended free trial will allow developers to try out the Windows Azure platform without the need for up-front investment costs,” a Microsoft blog entry explained.

The offer arrives but a few weeks after Microsoft promoted Satya Nadella to head its $15 billion server and tools business, which includes the Azure offering. The company raved about Nadella’s experience in ramping up large-scale consumer-focused cloud services like Bing and hoped he could bring the same magic to getting Microsoft cloud services into the enterprise as well.

Participants of the free trial can choose one of two options: 750 hours of use on an Extra Small Compute Instance, or 25 hours on a Small Compute Instance. An Extra Small Compute Instance offers the equivalent of a 1GHz processor with 768MB of working memory, which normally costs $.05 an hour. The Small Compute Instance has a 1.6GHz processor, 1.75GB of working memory, and typically costs $0.12 an hour.  Read More…..

Acer Returning To Server Market In U.S.

Acer, the No. 4 PC maker in this country, has released a line of servers and storage products for the United States market.

The launch marks the company’s return, or reinvestment, in the U.S. as a server vendor. Acer sells consumer PCs and related devices under its own name, as well under Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell brands.

It had previously sold servers in the U.S., but it let that business dwindle over the last few years. The company said it has made a major investment in this market.

It said it has expanded its support and service capabilities, and will manufacturer its server products in the U.S. through third-party makers.

“I want to make sure that we can we build very, very quickly and deliver much faster than everyone else,” said Todd Mottershead, senior manager for servers and storage at Acer.

IDC ranked Acer No. 3 worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010, following Hewlett Packard and Dell. In the U.S., Acer is the fourth largest vendor; HP has 28.6% of the U.S. market; Dell about 22%; Toshiba, about 10%; and Acer 9%.

Acer has been selling servers outside the U.S.

For its U.S. reintroduction, Acer has released a tower rack, blade system, and systems especially designed for cloud computing, all with a number of configurations, as well as network attached storage products. Prices range from $721 for a tower to $10,499, for storage. Acer will be selling through channel partners. Read More…..

Lenovo To Launch LePad Tablet In June

In what appears to be the year of the tablet, Chinese PC maker Lenovo announced plans to sell its LePad tablet worldwide in June, but will first launch the device in China at the end of March, a company spokesman said on today.

The LePad, Lenovo’s first tablet computer, was unveiled in January during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device is built with 10.1-inch screen that runs the Android 2.2 OS on a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. (See a video report on LePad’s CES unveiling on YouTube.)

Lenovo said the device would be priced between $399 and $449. But at the time, the company was still unsure whether it would sell the product outside of China.

While Lenovo now plans on selling the tablet overseas, company spokesman Jay Chen couldn’t say which markets will be targeted.  Read More…

80% Of Browsers Found To Be At Risk Of Attack

About eight out of every ten internet browsers run by consumers are vulnerable to attack by exploits of already-patched bugs, a security expert said today.

The poor state of browser patching stunned Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of security risk and compliance management provider Qualys, which presented data from the company’s free BrowserCheck service Wednesday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

“I really thought it would be lower,” said Kandek of the nearly 80% of browsers that lacked one or more patches.

BrowserCheck scans Windows, Mac and Linux machines for vulnerable browsers, as well as up to 18 browser plug-ins, including Adobe’s Flash and Reader, Oracle’s Java and Microsoft’s Silverlight and Windows Media Player.

When browsers and their plug-ins are tabulated together, between 90% and 65% of all consumer systems scanned with BrowserCheck since June 2010 reported at least one out-of-date component, depending on the month. In January 2011, about 80% of the machines were vulnerable.  Read more….

nVidia Goes Quad-Core With Tegra

Nvidia finally debuted its first quad-core Tegra processor, codenamed Kal-El, and the new chip will probably lead to much more powerful tablets and high-end smartphones.

“You’ll have full photo editing, video editing, writing of documents, browsing the Web, all sorts of stuff,” Phil Carmak announced. Read more….

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