Cameras Nikon D5100 DSLR surfaces with 16.2 megapixel sensor, 1080p video recording

Been waiting for a new Nikon DSLR to slide in under that magical $1,000 mark? Then we've got some good news for you, as Digital Home Thoughts has now let slip some official details and pictures of Nikon's new prosumer D5100 model. This one steps things up to a D7000-matching 16.2 megapixels from the 12 megapixel D5000, and boasts a 3-inch articulated display (side-mounted this time), 1080p video recording at both 30 and 24 fps (with autofocus!), ISO settings from 100 to 6,400, and an 18-105mm lens included in the kit (no body-only option available just yet, it seems). What's more, Nikon's also releasing a new ME-1 microphone alongside the camera to let you take full advantage of those video recording capabilities -- check it out after the break. Look for this one to set you back $899.95 for the kit, with the mic running $159.95. Those are Canadian prices according to Digital Home Thoughts, though we'd expect US pricing to be the same.

AMD ships 32nm quad-core Llano APU, expects systems 'later this quarter'

Whoa, Nelly! AMD, a company that has struggled to nail its ship dates in years past, has just pulled the ultimate 180. If you'll recall, we heard last month that its quad-core Llano APU was on track for a Q3 2011 release, but now, we've word straight from the equine's mouth that the action will be going down far sooner. In fact, AMD's Singapore plant just celebrated the first shipment of the company's 32nm Llano A-series APUs, complete with discrete-level graphics and a promise to change the way we think about netbook / nettop / ultraportable performance. Of course, just because these chips are headed out to OEM partners doesn't mean that they'll be gracing the pages of your favorite PC maker tomorrow; Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO Thomas Seifert notes that AMD is looking forward to seeing Llano-based machines during this quarter, but given that Q2 just got going, we may be waiting awhile still. Nothing like a little Zacate to tide you over in the meantime, right?

Radeon HD 6790 sneaks in at under $150

As sure as snow in winter or sun in summer, AMD has yet another refresh to its graphics card portfolio this spring. The Radeon HD 6790 is only a couple of misplaced digits away from the far more illustrious HD 6970, but you should be able to tell the two apart by another, altogether more significant spec: the new mid-tier card retails at $149. Predictably, its performance offers no threat to AMD's single-GPU flagship, but the 6790's 840MHz graphics and shader clock speeds plus 1GB of GDDR5 running at an effective 4.2GHz data rate don't seem like anything to sniff at either. Reviewers agreed that it's AMD's slightly delayed answer to NVIDIA's GTX 460, and with the latter card exiting retail availability to make room for the (oddly enough) less powerful GTX 550 Ti, AMD's new solution looks set to be the better choice at the shared $149 price point. Alas, being limited to 800 Stream processors and 16 ROPs does expose the HD 6790 to being cannibalized by AMD's own Radeon HD 6850 (which can be had for sub-$150 if you're tolerant of rebates) and that turns out to be exactly what happens. A solid card, then, but one that would require an even lower price dip to make economic sense. Benchmarks await below.

Nanogenerators produce electricity by squeezing your fingers together, while you dance

Science

Nanogenerators produce electricity by squeezing your fingers together, while you dance

By Sam Sheffer posted Mar 31st 2011 8:23PM

It's been a while since we last heard about nanogeneratos -- you know, those insanely tiny fibers that could potentially be woven into your hoodie to juice up your smartphone. Dr. Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology has reported that he and his team of Einsteins constructed nanogenerators with enough energy to potentially power LCDs, LEDs and laser diodes by moving your various limbs. These micro-powerhouses -- 1 / 500 the width of a single hair strand -- are embedded with piezoelectric zinc oxide atoms and can generate electrical charges when flexed or strained. Wang and his team of researchers shoved a collection of their nanogenerators into a chip 1 / 4 the size of a stamp, stacked five of them on top of one another and can pinch the stack between their fingers to generate the output of two standard AA batteries -- around 1.5 volts. Although it's not much, we're super excited at this point in development -- imagine how convenient to charge your phone in your pocket sans the bulky battery add-ons. And that's only one application of this technology. Yea, we know.

IBM products aim to speed up, automate virtualization

IBM is aiming to make it easier for enterprises to manage their virtualized environments, with new features in the Tivoli Provisioning Manager and other software products.

IBM is rolling out a beta program for new software that it claims can dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to provision new virtual machines. The software can deploy a single VM in seconds, dozens in a few minutes and hundreds or thousands in under an hour, according to an IBM press release.

Dennis Quan, director of the IBM Tivoli China Development Laboratory, was vague about how the software achieves those speeds, saying that it uses a number of techniques including streaming the image.

The software can boost efficiency in organizations where IT people might otherwise spend many minutes or even an hour to get a single VM provisioned, he said.

But the benefits can extend further, he said. One reason companies move to the cloud is because it allows organizations to use only the computing resources they need.

"That idea also assumes that when they're done with those resources they are returned to the cloud so they can be used by others," Quan said. However, sometimes groups are reluctant to give up resources even if they aren't using them because of the time it can take to get those resources back later.

"If you get to the point where you tell users they can get their resources back in seconds to minutes, then the users don't worry about not getting it back quickly if they give it up now," Quan said. The software can also help improve agility for businesses that may want to be able to make changes quickly, he said.

IBM also announced Tuesday that Tivoli Provisioning Manager now supports image federation and deployment across heterogenous infrastructure.

"It's the ability to support different hardware hypervisor platforms from a single management system," Quan said. An enterprise can use VMware, PowerVM and Xen hypervisors and manage them from the same console, he said.

IBM is also announcing that it will launch a beta program "imminently" for new software that extends service management capabilities to hybrid clouds. Users will be able to monitor and provision services that may be hosted internally or on public clouds. Financial services and public sector organizations are among those most interested in keeping important data on internal systems while offloading less mission-critical apps to public clouds, Quan said.

Quan did not share the list of public cloud services that would initially be supported but said that it would be able to tie in many services and would refine the list through the course of the beta program.

The company is also announcing new virtualization support in its Tivoli Storage Manager. The product lets users efficiently manage storage requirements, data recovery and data protection across machines, Quan said. "It gives you better control over your environment and enforces a more uniform policy," he said.

The new features and products may be good news for CFOs, but may not exactly be welcome by IT departments. By automating management and speeding up provisioning times, IT departments require fewer administrators, Quan said.

Intel details new Atom N570 processor

Intel on Tuesday provided further details about its Atom N570 chip and said netbooks with the processor will ship later this month.

The dual-core processor runs at 1.66GHz and includes 1MB of L2 cache. It draws 8.5 watts of power and supports DDR3 memory, Intel said in a blog entry.

Asustek Computer, Samsung and Lenovo will ship netbooks with the Atom N570 processor later this month, Intel said. Some laptops are being shown at the CeBit trade show going on in Hanover, Germany.

Netbooks running on the chip will deliver a battery life similar to that of systems running on single-core Atom processors, Intel said. The battery life of netbooks depends on features, screen size and applications. Some netbooks can deliver between eight and 12 hours of battery life on basic activities such as Web browsing. But applications that demand a lot of processing power, such as high-definition graphics, can drain battery life quickly.

The chip was first announced on Monday with SeaMicro's SM10000-64 low-power server, which includes 256 Atom N570 processors. The chip includes server-friendly features such as 64-bit extensions and multithreading, in which each core is capable of running two threads simultaneously to boost application performance. All desktop, laptop and server chips based on Intel's newer Sandy Bridge microarchitecture and its predecessor, Westmere, are capable of running multiple threads per core.

There is a growing interest in using netbook chips such as Atom in low-power servers. However, netbook shipments are getting clobbered by tablets, which are competing for consumer dollars. Intel is also working on an Atom chip for tablets, which is code-named Oak Trail.

AMD Fusion pentru acasă

În cadrul CES-ului din Las Vegas desfăşurat în ianuarie, AMD anunţa platforma Fusion, o familie de unităţi de procesare accelerată (APU) care includ într-un singur cip tehno­logie multicore CPU şi grafică compa­tibilă DirectX11 cu performanţe la nivel de grafică discretă.

Este răspunsul AMD la tandemul Nvidia ION - Intel Atom, prima tehno­logie care a transfor­mat netbook-urile în echipamente pentru divertisment multimedia HD. Tot la CES erau anunţate porta­bile care se bazează pe Fusion de la majoritatea integra­torilor cunoscuţi. Contrar tuturor aşteptărilor, primii care au adus în România un laptop bazat pe această platformă sunt cei de la Sony, prin modelul Vaio YB.

Vaio YB este de fapt un Y la o scară redusă, cu dimensiunea ecranului micşorată de la 13,3 inchi la 11,6 inchi. Aspectul său este unul îngrijit care respiră acea eleganţă simplă tipică portabilelor Vaio, cu materiale şi finisaje de calitate, de aici poate şi preţul peste media pieţei. Nu este nici prea sobru, nici prea modern, astfel că se adresează atât tinerilor dinamici şi activi, cât şi celor trecuţi de o anumită vârstă, mai preten­ţioşi şi mai selectivi.

Platforma AMD Fusion care echi­pează acest mini-laptop combină un procesor low-voltage la 1,6 Ghz cu o placă grafică puternică Radeon 6310. Procesorul, alături de memoria RAM de 2GB, poate asigura o func­ţionare corectă în programele de bază pe care le-am utiliza: navigare pe internet, me­sa­­gerie instant, vizualizare sau editare do­cumente office cu un nivel de com­ple­xitate minim/mediu sau oricare alte programe care nu-l stresează prea tare, limitele sale superioare fiind uşor de atins. Dacă utilizaţi frecvent programe solicitante, de genul celor de editare grafică foto sau video la un nivel avansat sau al jocurilor de ultimă generaţie, nu acesta este echipamentul pe care îl căutaţi. Din punctul de vedere al perfor­manţelor sale îşi poate dovedi utilitatea mai degrabă într-un mediu casnic, fiind o posibilă unealtă de studiu pentru elevi sau studenţi sau pe post de un al doilea sistem, portabil. Este uşor, compact şi are destulă putere pentru ceea ce am avea de făcut în condiţii de portabilitate, foarte util în vacanţe. Por­ta­bilitatea este asigurată şi de auto­nomia de aproape 4 ore, în condiţiile în care a fost acceso­rizat cu un mouse fără fir, a fost conectat la reţeaua wireless, iar luminozitatea ecranului era aproape de maxim.

Dar să nu uităm că ne poate asigura din plin şi suportul pentru vizualizarea materialelor video la rezoluţii full HD, acestea rulând foarte bine în progra­mele cu suport pentru accelerare gra­fică. Totul se datorează plăcii AMD Radeon HD 6310, una care manevrează fără efort şi fără blocări conţinut video HD sau jocuri cu o complexitate medie. Poate fi utilizat şi în postură de player multimedia, portul HDMI fiind perfect pentru redarea imaginilor pe un tele­vizor cu diagonală mare. Capacită­ţile sale de divertisment nu sunt susţinute şi de sistemul audio, unul cu speakere mici, conform legilor firii, pe măsura dimensiunilor sale compacte. Aşa că este nevoie de conectarea la boxe mai performante.

Pentru transferul da­telor din reţea avem la dispoziţie cele mai performante tehnologii la ora actuală pe laptopuri - Ethernet Gigabit şi Wireless de tip N. Remarcăm şi pre­zenţa a 3 porturi USB 2.0, de ajuns pentru a conecta simultan un mouse wireless, un hard disk extern şi o imprimantă.

Ecranul de 11.6 inchi afişează o rezoluţie perfectă pentru dimensiunile sale de 1366x768 pixeli. Caracterele şi ima­ginile afişate pe ecran pot fi vizua­lizate confortabil, nu sunt nici prea mici, nici prea mari, nu obosesc ochii. Imaginile sunt clare, luminoase, cu o coloristică vibrantă. Am remarcat faptul ca finisajul lucios nu are reflexii deran­jante în lumina naturală. Tastatura asi­gură din plin suportul pentru redac­tarea fluentă şi rapidă, tastele excelent spaţiate şi feedbackul la apăsare fiind elemente plăcute la utilizare. Touchpad-ul răspunde excelent la comenzile tactile, dar cele două butonaşe sunt puţin cam rigide.

www.imidoresc.ro

Caracteristici tehnice

Ecran: 11,6 inchi ( 29,5 cm)

cu o rezoluţie de 1366x768 pixeli

CPU: 1.6-GHz AMD E-350

Placă Grafică: AMD Radeon HD 6310

Stocare: 320 GB

Memorie: RAM: 2GB

Conectică: Ethernet gigabit; WLAN 802.11b/g/n; Bluetooth(r) 2.1

Altele: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (x3); 1 xHDMI out; MOTION EYE(r) digital camera

Dimensiuni: 202.8 x 25 x 290 mm

Greutate: 1.46 Kg

SO: Windows 7 Home Premium

Preţ: 2200 lei

Pro

- Poate rula materiale video full HD

- Portabilitatea, este uşor şi compact

- Construcţie de calitate

Contra

- Preţul peste media clasei

Sony unveils 17-inch, 25-inch professional OLED monitors

Sony will soon begin selling a professional monitor that contains the largest commercial organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen yet produced.

The monitor, which is aimed at the TV and film production industries, will go on sale on May 1 and has a 25-inch OLED screen. A second model with a 17-inch screen will follow on July 1. (See a video report on the monitors.)

OLED is a flat-panel screen technology that rivals liquid-crystal display (LCD). OLED screens have pixels that contain an organic material that emits its own light, so screens using the technology can be made thinner than LCDs and are more power efficient. OLED also handles fast-moving images better and colors appear richer on the screens than on LCD, but large-size OLED panels are expensive to produce.

Sony is positioning the monitors for use in editing bays, satellite trucks and broadcasting control rooms. A high-quality picture is required for these so-called "reference monitors" and Sony said the OLED panels produce an image superior to LCD.

During a demonstration at its Tokyo headquarters, Sony played identical video footage on the new 25-inch OLED monitor and an LCD broadcasting monitor placed side-by-side.

The picture from the OLED screen was noticeably better, with richer and deeper colors. When the screen faded to black, the OLED monitor showed nothing but the LCD monitor continued to glow a light shade of grey because of its backlight.

Like a lot of equipment used in the broadcasting industry, the new monitors won't be cheap. The 25-inch model will cost ¥2.4 million (US$28,840) and the 17-inch model will cost ¥1.3 million. But while they appear expensive compared to consumer-grade monitors, the OLED screens cost only about 10 percent more than the LCD monitors they aim to replace.

Sony's launch of commercial 17-inch and 25-inch OLED monitors is a step forward for the display industry, which has made a habit out of promising bigger OLED screens then failing to deliver.

Despite several technical advances, flat-screen makers have had a hard time perfecting OLED production to the stage where it can reliably make large, flawless screens. Smaller size screens around 3-inches have proved no problem and can be found in many cell phones and portable gadgets, but larger screens have remained a hurdle.

The difficulty was most vividly demonstrated in late 2007 when Sony launched the industry's first -- and still the only -- OLED television. The XEL-1 had an 11-inch screen yet cost US$2,500, which was significantly higher than much larger LCD televisions on the market at the time. Monthly production was set at just 2,000 units.

A few months after the XEL-1 launched, Sony CEO Howard Stringer promised a 27-inch model "fairly soon," but it never appeared. Competitors including Samsung and LG Electronics also showed prototypes and also made promises, but they never got an OLED television to market.

On Wednesday, Sony didn't disclose any plans for OLED TVs.

Xoom 4G upgrade could take more than six days

Users will have to send their Motorola Xoom tablets away for a week in order to upgrade them to 4G, Verizon Wireless said this week.

The Xoom, the first device to run Google’s Android Honeycomb OS for tablets, works on Verizon’s 3G network and became available on Thursday.

When Motorola announced the tablet last month, it said users would be able to upgrade it for use on Verizon's 4G LTE network. At the time, Motorola didn’t say how it would manage such an upgrade.

Users can sign up to receive an e-mail notification from Verizon when the upgrade is available. Verizon said it would be “shortly,” while Motorola said the upgrade would happen in the second quarter.

To get 4G, users are instructed to first back up all the data on the Xoom and then send it in to Motorola. They should expect to be without their device for six business days, Verizon said. That means the process could take a week or more, since six business days would encompass a weekend.

There is no additional cost for the upgrade. The Xoom costs US$600 with a two-year Verizon data contract, or $800 without.

While there are other Android tablets available, the launch of the Xoom is being closely watched because it is the first to use a version of Android designed specifically for tablets. Previous tablets have used older versions of Android that were designed primarily for smartphones.

Hacker writes easy-to-use Mac Trojan

In a sign that hackers, like everyone else, are taking an interest in everything Apple, researchers at Sophos say they've spotted a new Trojan horse program written for the Mac.

It's called the BlackHole RAT (the RAT part is for "remote access Trojan") and it's pretty easy to find online in hacking forums, according to Chet Wisniewski a researcher with antivirus vendor Sophos. There's even a YouTube video demonstration of the program that shows you what it can do.

Sophos hasn't seen the Trojan used in any online attacks -- it's more a bare-bones, proof-of-concept beta program right now -- but the software is pretty easy to use, and if a criminal could find a way to get a Mac user to install it, or write attack code that would silently install it on the Mac, it would give him remote control of the hacked machine.

BlackHole is a variant of a Windows Trojan called darkComet, but it appears to have been written by a different developer. The darkComet source code is freely available, so it looks like BlackHole's author simply took that code and tweaked it so it would run on the Mac, Wisniewski said.

Mac OS X has been gaining market share on Windows lately, and that's starting to make it a more interesting platform for criminals. Wisniewski said that while Mac malware is still very rare, he has seen another Trojan, called HellRTS, circulating on file-sharing sites for pirated Mac software.

Vivendi bets on video games with Activision deal

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The video-game giant forged by the tie-up of Vivendi's game unit with Activision Inc. will be home to best-selling titles "Guitar Hero" and "World of Warcraft" and could have enough scale to challenge current leader Electronics Arts Inc.Vivendi , whose activities span recorded music, pay TV and mobile telephony as well as games, on Sunday announced the $18.9 billion deal with computer-games pioneer Activision.
The French group will own a majority stake in the combined company -- to be called Activision Blizzard -- which will rival Electronic Arts.The deal will be carried out in two steps. First, Vivendi's game unit, Vivendi Games, will merge with Activision and Vivendi will purchase $1.7 billion worth of Activision shares for $27.50 each, giving it 52% of the new company.
Then, within five days of the deal closing, Activision Blizzard will do a $4 billion all-cash tender offer to buy up to 146.5 million of its own shares, raising Vivendi's stake to 68%. The deal will bring together some of the hottest franchises in the game sector. Activision publishes the "Guitar Hero" series -- one of this year's best-sellers -- as well as the popular "Tony Hawk" and "Call of Duty" series. Its business model is based on selling games for a one-time fee of $50 to $60.
Vivendi, meanwhile, is a big force in online and PC games played by people all over the world at the same time. The company owns Blizzard Entertainment, which publishes the popular "World of Warcraft" online multi-player game. Most "Warcraft" subscribers in Western markets pay $15 a month to play, while users in Asia typically buy cards that let them play the game for various time periods.
The overwhelming popularity of "Warcraft" is what led Activision to consider doing a deal with Vivendi, rather than trying to crack the multi-player market on its own.
"We didn't feel we could deliver an audience experience like they have done," Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said in an interview. "As we began to talk, we realized we had these incredible synergies and a common belief on how the market would evolve."
Kotick will run the combined company as CEO, while Vivendi Games CEO Bruce Hack, will serve as vice chairman and chief corporate officer. Vivendi does deal as euro nears all-time high versus dollar
Once combined, Activision Blizzard will have annual sales of about $3.8 billion for the current fiscal year. Electronic Arts, by contrast, is expected to generate about $3.9 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending in March, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Financial.
But analysts noted that Activision will now have a big lead in the market for online, multi-player games that are especially popular in the Asian markets, including China.
The big prize in the deal is indeed "Warcraft," which is by far the biggest game in the sector, with about 9.3 million subscribers globally. The game accounts for the bulk of the $1.1 billion in annual revenues generated by Vivendi Games.
"When you look at it, there are only about 15 million people worldwide playing online multi-player games, and more than half of them are Vivendi customers," said Michael Pachter, video game analyst with Wedbush Morgan.
Pachter called "Warcraft" a "phenomenon," against which EA will have a hard time competing.
"There's something about 'Warcraft' that is different from every other online game in that it is so much better then any others at getting customers into the game and getting them to stay there," Pachter said. "Activision is taking a big chunk of the market that EA was trying to get into."
Societe Generale analysts also welcomed the deal from the point of view of Vivendi, saying it will reduce its reliance on the "Warcraft" franchise.
It added that the transaction is struck at a time when the euro is near an all-time high against the dollar and still leaves Vivendi with some financial flexibility.
Santander analysts also stressed the benefits of the deal for Vivendi, saying Activision is a "good quality assets" with renowned licenses. It also noted that the games sector currently has stronger growth than the media sector, in which Vivendi operates, and said synergies between video games and telecom assets are possible.
"All in all, apart from a deal in the French telecom sector, we believe this merger is one of the best deals that Vivendi could have done," the broker concluded.
Dan Gallagher is MarketWatch's technology editor, based in San Francisco.Aude Lagorce is a senior correspondent for MarketWatch in London.

Activision Blizzard

December 2, 2007 - Until today, Sunday wasn't generally regarded as a big news day in this industry. But that changed this afternoon when Vivendi and Activision announced that they were joining forces to create the largest game publisher in the world. The new company, Activision Blizzard, will not only own some of the most prestigious brands in gaming (Warcraft, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, and others) but will also have a tremendous PC/console diversity in their catalog and stronger penetration into Asian and online markets.To get a few more details on this deal and to find out just what it means for the Blizzard brand in particular, we recently spoke with Blizzard Entertainment's president and CEO Mike Morhaime.IGN: Thanks for joining us, Mike. I know you're busy today so we won't take up too much of your time. Tell us in general terms what this is all about.Mike Morhaime: Basically, Vivendi announced earlier today that it's going to be contributing Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard, valued at 8.1 billion dollars plus 1.7 billion dollars in cash in exchange for 52% of Activision Blizzard, which will be the new company once Vivendi Games is injected into Activision.If you look at Activision and Vivendi Games, I'm sure you'll notice that they're very complimentary businesses. Activision has a firm track record on the console side of the business with very strong franchises like Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk. Blizzard Entertainment is number one on PC and online. We've got the number one MMORG in the world with over 9.3 million subscribers. We have great geographic penetration in North America and Europe and we're the only western publisher that has a significant penetration in to Asia. We have the number one brand in Korea, China and Taiwan. So when you combine these two companies together, what you get is the world's largest and most profitable video game publisher that is the leader across all platforms, all categories and all geographies.From a development standpoint, at Blizzard Entertainment one of our values of course is commitment to quality. Activision is structured with independent studios and they give their independent studios quite a bit of autonomy. They believe very strongly, like we do, that the way to run a successful business in this industry is through developing high quality games. That's the only way to develop long-term value in your franchises and your businesses. Ultimately the only way to win is to create great games. I think that the combination of these two companies provides us with a very diversified, stable structure with which we can reward talent and continue creating awesome games.IGN: We saw in the release that Vivendi could own as much as 68% of Activision Blizzard by the time the deal is over. Who actually is in charge and what's the management system like? Do you think the new management will preserve the independent approach to managing their developers?Mike Morhaime: When you say "managing their developers," the Blizzard Entertainment structure remains unchanged. I will remain president and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment reporting to Bobby Kotick who is CEO of Activision Blizzard. As far as development and publishing, Blizzard Entertainment will continue to be a publisher of computer games and will continue to be developing and maintaining our intellectual properties as we always have.IGN: Do you know if the new company is planning to publish titles under the Sierra or Vivendi brands?Mike Morhaime: That, I don't know. I think that there's going to be a lot of discussion about what the brand strategy will be going forward. On the Blizzard Entertainment side it's very clear that the branding strategy is what it's always been. The Blizzard Entertainment brand will remain unchanged.IGN: Do you anticipate that Activision Blizzard will gain access now to some of Vivendi's television and film properties that aren't a part of the deal?Mike Morhaime: I don't know about television or film but I do know that Doug Morris [Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group] will have a seat on the Activision Blizzard board so there are potential opportunities with Universal Music for things like Guitar Hero.IGN: Are there any plans to cut divisions or staff that have been made redundant by the two companies coming together?Mike Morhaime: I think it's really too early to talk about stuff like that. I do know that's not our reason for doing the deal. We felt that the two businesses are very complimentary and I think there's going to have to be an evaluation of projects that are in development and there will be a green light process going forward. Projects that don't look like they're going to be profitable won't get green lit.IGN: The deal indicates that Vivendi as it currently stands is worth 8.1 billion dollars. What's the value of the new combined company?Mike Morhaime: We're estimating the value of the new company at 18.9 billion. The way we calculate that is 8.1 billion dollars plus 1.7 billion dollars in cash divided the stake that Vivendi will be receiving which is 52%.IGN: How long has this deal been in the works? Who approached whom?Mike Morhaime: There have been discussions going on for the better part of a year. Originally Bobby Kotick gave Bruce Hack, CEO of Vivendi Games, a phone call. They met for lunch to chat about potential things the two companies could do together. Very quickly, it became very clear to both of them that there was a potential opportunity to combine the businesses because they were so complimentary.Then Vivendi was brought in and met with the Activision guys and was very impressed. I've met several times with the Activision guys and we've talked at length about Blizzard's philosophy on game development and game publishing and all the things that are important to us at Blizzard. We found that we shared a lot of the same values. We feel pretty comfortable with the Activision executives and feel like they're going to continue being supportive of the way that Blizzard Entertainment runs their business. IGN: It sounds like there are plenty of advantages to the deal. Is there anything about being part of an even larger company that you feel you'll need to watch out for in the future?Mike Morhaime: There isn't really anything right now. I think the biggest change for us is more spotlights from financial press, which we really haven't had to deal with in the past because we've been really insulated from that in the past. One of my jobs as CEO of Blizzard Entertainment is to insulate the developers from that distraction so we can focus on making games like we always have.

Britney and Paris top Santa's naughty list

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Britney Spears and Paris Hilton open their stockings on Christmas Day, they shouldn't be surprised to find a lump of coal. A poll of American children released on Wednesday found that the two high-profile celebrities should top Santa's naughty list.
By contrast Disney star Hannah Montana, played by country singer Billy Ray Cyrus's daughter Miley, was overwhelming deemed the "nicest" celebrity among children aged 2 to 12 while actress Angelina Jolie was the choice for teenagers 13 to 17.
The online survey of 1,107 children was conducted by E-Poll Market Research, which specializes in celebrity and brand research, to gauge children's attitudes about nice, naughty, and the seasonal question of who makes Santa's list.
Spears, whose stint in rehabilitation, panty-less pictures, and custody battle for her children has won headlines globally, was awarded top "naughty" honors with younger and older children.
She was followed on the list by Paris Hilton who spent three weeks in jail this year on a driving violation.
The two women beat out Swiper the Fox from the television show Dora the Explorer, the Grinch from the book "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and Darth Vader from Star Wars among children 2-12.
For teens, Spears and Hilton topped Lindsay Lohan, who spent 84 minutes behind bars this year for a drunken driving and cocaine-possession conviction, and Beyonce.
When asked what makes someone nice, children mentioned "cleaning up and doing chores," "sharing" and "being honest and polite" as ways to impress Santa.
On the flip side, they mentioned "not listening to parents," "being mean and bullying" and "being snobby" as behaviors exhibited by those headed for the naughty list.

FBI: Millions of computers roped into criminal 'robot networks'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hackers have remotely controlled about 2.5 million computers of unsuspecting owners to commit crimes using computer robot networks called "botnets," the FBI said Thursday.The bureau in 2005 launched Operation Bot Roast to stop this emerging type of cyber attack, which the FBI estimates has resulted in $20 million in losses and theft, including one scheme that bilked a Midwest financial institution out of millions.
More than 1 million computers were infected with botnets when the FBI announced Bot Roast in June, and roughly 1.5 million more have been identified since then, the FBI said. Industry numbers suggest there are as many as 5 million infected computers.
According to an FBI news release, New Zealand authorities in tandem with the FBI this week searched the home of an individual -- identified only by the cyber name, "AKILL" -- whose "elite international botnet coding group" is suspected of infecting more than 1 million computers. AKILL is not in custody, the FBI said. Since the operation was announced, 13 search warrants have been served around the world, and eight individuals -- in Washington, Pennsylvania, Florida, California and Kentucky -- have been indicted or found guilty of crimes related to botnets. Such crimes include fraud, identity theft and denial-of-service attacks in which computer Web sites and other resources are made unavailable.
In one denial-of-service attack, Jason Michael Downey, 24, operated rizon.net, a system for chat rooms known as an Internet Relay Chat. Downey was sentenced to a year in prison for launching numerous denial-of-service attacks on other IRC networks and their operators.

Mourinho camp cool England talk

Jose Mourinho has not indicated his willingness to become the next England coach, sources close to the former Chelsea manager have told the BBC.
Newspaper reports on Wednesday claimed Mourinho had said he was prepared to talk to the Football Association.
But sources in Portugal have told the BBC that Mourinho has not made any public comment about the England job.
He would be a popular choice to replace Steve McClaren because of his record of success with Chelsea and Porto.
He won two Portuguese championships, the Uefa Cup and the Champions League with Porto before winning two Premier League titles, two League Cups and the FA Cup with the big-spending Chelsea.
Mourinho, 44, has been tipped to stay in club management in Europe, having previously suggested that at international level he would only be interested in coaching his native Portugal. FA chief executive Brian Barwick has said that nationality "would not be an issue" when it came to appointing the next England coach.
England, who have dropped down to the second pot of seeds in qualification for the major tournaments, avoided Portugal in Sunday's draw for the World Cup.
Barwick will lead the FA's search for a new coach alongside the organisation's development director Sir Trevor Brooking.
Several potential candidates haved already ruled themselves out of contention for the position with Aston Villa's Martin O'Neill, West Ham's Alan Curbishley and Newcastle's Sam Allardyce all distancing themselves from speculation.
McClaren was sacked after failing to steer England to the finals of next year's European Championships.

Dazzling delights go on display

Some of nature's most remarkable and unique treasures are set to dazzle the public when they go on display.
The Vault, a new gallery at London's Natural History Museum, will showcase a collection of gems, crystals, metals and meteorites from around the world.
Museum curator Alan Hart said the specimens were chosen for "their beauty, rarity and history".
They include a hefty gold nugget, a Martian meteorite and 296 coloured diamonds.
Mr Hart described the collection as "the creme de la creme" of the mineral world.
He said: "We designed this exclusive gallery so we could showcase the best of our collections and include in that some dazzling loans."
One of these loans includes the famous Aurora Collection, which consists of hundreds of exceptionally rare diamonds, ranging in colour from blood red to emerald green.
"Gems like these were not meant to be imprisoned in a dark underground safe for the momentary pleasure of a few eyes," said Alan Bronstein, the co-owner of the collection.
The Vault's team said the gallery would reveal some of the fascinating stories behind the treasures, from Heron-Allen's cursed amethyst to the Latrobe gold nugget, which was unearthed during Australia's "gold rush".
Mr Hart told the BBC News website: "Each specimen has a great narrative - whether it is a scientific narrative, cultural dimension or historical fact."
The team also said the array would give an insight into the science behind the specimens.
Displayed next to many of the glittering gems, including a vivid pink beryl from Madagascar, are the crystals or crystalline material from which they were cut.
This will give visitors a better idea of the Earth processes that yield such remarkable items. Mr Hart said: "We wanted to celebrate some of the rarest and unique gemstones, metals, meteorites and crystals as a natural substance.
"I think many people may have gemstones and they may not realise where the raw materials come from."
He added: "Many of these are like nature's artwork- they are just so spectacular."
The curator said it was impossible to place a value on the Vault's display. He explained: "Some of the items are so unique; they are literally priceless, especially in terms of their scientific value."
One such item is the Nakhla, a rare Martian meteorite which crashed to Earth in Egypt in 1911.
Mr Hart said: "By studying these meteorites we can find out about the origins of the Solar System and maybe even the origins of life itself."

Unpopulated, 1-house Texas town sells for $3.8M on eBay

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Someone in Italy placed the winning bid of $3.8 million on Friday for an unpopulated, one-house Texas town auctioned online.
No one lives permanently in the 13-acre town of Albert, about 60 miles north of San Antonio, but the tavern created from the frame of the old general store is open on weekends.
The town also includes a pavilion, an 85-year-old dance hall, a tractor shed, a three-bedroom house, plus peach and pecan orchards.
But before town owner Bobby Cave signs the deed over, he must ensure the eBay bid is legitimate. Cave said that unlike the usual items bought through eBay, there are no contractual obligations when it comes to real estate.
"There's just not any way to insist that a guy from Italy write me a check for three million," said Cave, 47, an Austin real estate agent.
The reserve price for the town was $2.5 million. Even if the deal doesn't go through, Cave said he has about five other prospective buyers genuinely interested in the town.
Bridgeville, in northern California, was the first town ever put on the eBay auction block. The 83 acres were twice sold on the site, in 2002 (that deal fell through) and again last year.

ATVs not safe for children

Kids who ride ATVs have an alarming number of potentially disabling injuries, a study reports.
All-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, weigh up to 600 pounds and can travel at speeds of 65 mph or more. The study adds to other evidence suggesting dangers faced by children who ride ATVs: The Consumer Product Safety Commission says 40,400 children were treated in U.S. emergency rooms in 2005 after ATV accidents.
"The public should know that ATVs are not safe," says researcher Chetan Shah of the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, who presented his team's findings Monday at the annual meeting in Chicago of the Radiological Society of North America.
Shah and his colleagues studied 500 children and teens injured in ATV accidents and brought to the emergency room at Children's Hospital over eight years.
They found that the number of ATV injuries more than doubled from 1998 to 2006.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Google Inc. said on Monday it has agreed to buy Web-based security provider Postini for $625 million, expanding its package of online applications to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Office.
Postini provides security and encryption services, protecting instant messaging, e-mail and other communications, to more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide.
Google said the deal would enable it to provide organizations with more Web-based services similar to its Google Apps package, which includes its e-mail service Gmail, Calendar, and Talk, its messaging service.
Google has been expanding its range of services from Web search and advertising to include popular software applications for businesses, such as word processing, putting it in direct competition with Microsoft's Office package of applications.
Google said its Google Apps has been adopted by more than 100,000 businesses to date.
"With this transaction, we're reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in a statement.
Google said Postini will become a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- Sony has cut the price of the PlayStation 3 by $100, or 17 percent, in the United States, a move that should boost the video game console's lackluster sales.

Starting Monday, the current PS3 60 gigabyte model will cost $499 -- a $100 price drop.

The PlayStation 3, which includes a 60-gigabyte hard drive and a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player, will now cost $500, or $20 more than the most expensive version of Microsoft's Xbox 360.
The PS3 still costs twice that of Nintendo's Wii console, whose $250 price and motion-sensing controller have made it a best-seller despite its lack of cutting-edge graphics and hard disk.
"Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum," Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview.
"We've gotten our production issues behind us on the PlayStation 3, reaching a position to pass on the savings to consumers, and our attitude is the sooner the better."
The price drop Monday was widely anticipated by industry analysts despite Sony President Ryoji Chubachi telling Reuters last week that the company had no immediate plans for one.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said Sony's price reduction would not double sales but may boost them by 50 percent to about 120,000 units a month.
"The greater significance is that Sony is signaling to the market that we're coming down the cost curve pretty fast in making this thing. It's a pretty consumer-friendly move," Pachter said.
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Sony's move comes two days before the start of the video game industry's annual E3 trade show in Santa Monica, California, where some expect Microsoft to respond with its first price cuts on the Xbox 360.
Nintendo, whose Wii is selling so well that it is still hard to find in stores eight months after its launch, is not expected to budge on pricing.
The Xbox 360 and Wii have outsold the PS3 by several times in the crucial U.S. market, leaving Sony, whose PlayStation 2 dominated the last console generation, in the unfamiliar position of playing catch up.
Sony is counting on the price cut to help it significantly grow sales of the PS3 ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season that accounts for most of the annual sales of highly profitable gaming software.
Sony is also introducing a new version of the PS3 featuring an 80-gigabyte hard drive and a copy of "Motorstorm," an off-road racing game that has already sold a million copies.
The new model will sell for $600 and is aimed at gamers who expect to download a lot of games and other content from Sony's burgeoning online network.
Sony also hopes the PS3 will win some converts following Microsoft's admission last week that the failure rate of its Xbox 360 console had been unacceptably high, forcing it to book $1 billion in repair costs.
"We're especially proud of the fact that the PlayStation 3 has the lowest failure rate of any PlayStation product. It's absolutely the gold standard," Tretton said.
"The quality of the product and long-term viability is what ultimately wins."