Microsoft Announces Morro - A No-Cost
Consumer Security Offering
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 18, 2008 — To address the growing need for a
PC security solution tailored to the demands of emerging markets,
smaller PC form factors and rapid increases in the incidence of
malware, Microsoft Corp. plans to offer a new consumer security
offering focused on core anti-malware protection.
Code-named “Morro,” this streamlined solution will be available in
the second half of 2009 and will provide comprehensive protection
from malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. This
new solution, to be offered at no charge to consumers, will be
architected for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing
resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less
powerful PCs. As part of Microsoft’s move to focus on this
simplified offering, the company also announced today that it will
discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription
service effective June 30, 2009.
“Customers around the world have told us that they need
comprehensive, ongoing protection from new and existing threats, and
we take that concern seriously,” said Amy Barzdukas, senior director
of product management for the Online Services and Windows Division
at Microsoft. “This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability
to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in
markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the
growth of malware.”
Today's case review features a rather unusual case design from GMC
called the R-2 Toast. GMC may not be a familiar name to some
readers but they have been making award winning cases for the
European market for some time. Local sound card favorites Auzentech are now a distributer and soon these cases will be found
just about everywhere. Lets take a closer look at the aptly
named Toast.
Microsoft open online store Microsoft Store
offers Microsoft’s entire consumer catalog, including desktop
software, the Xbox console and its related game titles, the
Microsoft Zune, and all of the company’s hardware, including mice,
keyboards, web cameras, and joysticks. Along with a fast, secure
buying experience, customers will enjoy an easy-to-use interface and
useful product comparisons.
“Microsoft Store gives customers a trusted
environment to discover, learn, try, download and buy from the
largest selection of Microsoft software, devices and hardware,” says
Larry Engel, general manager, Microsoft Store & Marketplaces. “For
the first time, customers will have one place to find and purchase
everything from Microsoft, rather than seeing just a list of
products.”
AMD Announces Widespread Availability for
New Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor
SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- November 13, 2008 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today
announced widespread availability of its 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron™
processor, delivering up to 35 percent more performance with up to a
35 percent decrease in power consumption at idle.2 With IT
decision-makers looking to do more with less, the newest Quad-Core
AMD Opteron processor can help drive data center efficiencies and
reduce complexities with innovations that offer superior
virtualization performance and increased performance-per-watt.
Global OEMs are expected to immediately offer enterprise and SMB
customers more than 25 systems, available between launch today and
the end of the year, based on the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron
processor, codenamed “Shanghai.”
Learn more about it here.
It has been an interesting year here at Club Overclocker with all
the new ATi video cards, sweet computer cases, ultra fast SAS hard
drives and much, much more. However, some items aren't always what
you expect.
Now and then we receive something completely new and very unusual.
Customized gaming cases usually fall into this category, but Antec's
new Skeleton open air case takes new and unusual to a new level.
Let's take a
look at the all new Skeleton, right here at Club
Overclocker!
Microsoft Announces
General Availability of Windows Small Business Server 2008 and
Windows Essential Business Server 2008
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 12, 2008 — As part of Microsoft Corp.’s $6.5
billion annual investment in products, support programs and
incentives for small and midsize businesses, the company today
announced the general availability of Windows Small Business Server
2008 (SBS 2008) and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS
2008). These solutions bring the power of Microsoft’s
enterprise-class server technologies to small and midsize companies
in a way that companies can best consume them. They are designed and
priced to help customers save money and compete more successfully in
the global marketplace. Read the full press release
here.
Seagate Unveils Latest Storage Solution For Small
Business -- New Central Axis™ Business Edition Dual-Drive
Network Storage Server
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.-November 12, 2008-Seagate
(NASDAQ: STX), the world leader in storage solutions, today
introduced the Maxtor® Central Axis™ Business Edition dual-drive
network storage server, a storage solution designed to satisfy
the long-term business continuity needs and growing storage
requirements of small businesses. The Central Axis Business
Edition network storage server takes the guesswork out of
network storage management by providing simple, automatic backup
with solid data protection and secure remote access to business
critical information from any web browser. Available in early
November, this small-business network storage solution will help
companies keep their competitive edge by delivering access to,
and protection for their business critical information while in
the office or on the road.
Learn more by clicking here.
11/10/2008
Circuit City files for Chapter 11 Today Circuit City filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection, just one week after announcing massive store
closings and layoffs. Is this the end of Circuit City?
Read the Q & A session over at CNET.
DHL discontinues US operations
As if things weren't bad enough,
DHL announced today that they were pulling out of the US market
and laying off about 9,500 people. Yes, things are bad and getting
worse every day... Our hearts and thoughts go out to the people and
families effected by these tough times.
Today we will be looking at the latest modular power supply from FSP
Group, the Power-Mod 700 Watt Modular Power Supply. While the
name FSP Group may be new to you, it is likely you have used one of
their OEM power supplies before under the name Fortron Source. FSP is
currently the number 6 power supply manufacturer in the world and
has been making both OEM and aftermarket power supplies since 1993.
With a history like that,
lets see what the Power-Mod 700W can bring
to the table!
NVIDIA announces Quadro FX 470 & FX 370
SANTA CLARA, CA—NOVEMBER 6, 2008—With
today’s traditional workstation model pricing, many organizations
can only afford to deploy professional graphics solutions to select
designers and engineers, leaving a significant portion of the
workforce with sub-optimal products. This is about to change as
NVIDIA Corp. announced today NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 470, the first
integrated professional motherboard GPU, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 370
Low Profile (Quadro FX 370 LP), an entry-level Quadro graphics
boards for small form factor systems.
Read more about it here.
Microsoft Introduces
Windows 7 to Hardware Partners LOS ANGELES — Nov. 5, 2008 — Today at the Windows Hardware
Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2008, Microsoft Corp. showcased new
innovations in Windows 7 that make it easier for hardware partners
to create new experiences for Windows PC customers. Windows senior
vice presidents Steven Sinofsky and Jon DeVaan encouraged hardware
partners to start testing their current products and building new
products on the application programming interface (API) complete
pre-beta that was distributed to WinHEC attendees. Microsoft also
provided a pre-beta release of Windows Server 2008 R2 to attendees.
“We’ve done a great deal of work in Windows 7 to
enable new scenarios with our hardware partners, and we are excited
by the partner innovation we have shown today,” said DeVaan, senior
vice president of the Windows Core Operating System Division at
Microsoft. “Windows 7 presents tremendous opportunities for hardware
developers. This innovation will enable our hardware partners to
provide customers with even greater choice in rich computing
experiences.”
Halloween is over, the kids are
hyped up on sugar, and the political mudslinging is about to come to
an end….it must be November!
Now that the children have slipped into a
glucose induced coma, I can sit down and give all of you
overclockers an early Christmas present: an in-depth look into to
ATi’s latest offering, the long-awaited
Sapphire Radeon HD4850X2.
Seagate introduces world's fastest, greenest enterprise hard drive New Savvio® HDD uses 70% less power than
competing 3.5-inch hard drives, and is a key component in Seagate’s
new Unified Storage™ architecture
SCOTTS
VALLEY,
Calif.
— November 3, 2008 — Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) today introduced the
world’s fastest and greenest drive – the Savvio 15K.2 HDD, the new
15K-rpm addition to the Savvio family of 2.5-inch SAS 2.0 enterprise
solutions. Savvio 15K.2 HDD delivers the industry’s highest hard
drive performance and reliability as well as adding a
self-encrypting drive option, all while maintaining Seagate’s
industry leading, record low power consumption. The Savvio 15K.2
hard drive and the previously-announced Savvio 10K.3 hard drive are
both part of Seagate’s new Unified Storage architecture which
converges disk drive interfaces, form factors, and security features
into a common best-of-breed platform for powerful, yet simple
storage solutions. Together, Seagate’s Unified Storage architecture
and the Savvio hard drive family improve manageability, integration,
security and performance benefits for IT departments while ensuring
business continuity with no compromise.
The Savvio 15K.2 HDD is offered in the server
capacity sweet-spots of 146GB and 73GB with a SAS 2.0 interface
running at 6Gb/s speeds. This enables larger topologies, 100%
faster data throughput and higher signal strength over greater
distances – dramatically increasing storage scalability. As a
result, Savvio 15K.2 hard drives are ideal for RAID configurations,
and ultimately provide up to 115% greater system-level performance
when compared to systems based on 3.5-inch server-class drives. And
with Seagate’s onboard PowerTrim™ technology, Savvio 15K.2 drives
dynamically reduce power consumption up to 70% over comparable
3.5-inch 15,000-rpm drives. In addition, the Savvio 15K.2 HDD is the
only 2nd generation 2.5-inch 15,000-rpm drive backed with
field-proven, enterprise-grade reliability. The Savvio 15K.2
HDD is also the first small form factor 15K enterprise
self-encrypting drive that uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
government-grade encryption, enabling protection of information
throughout a drive’s lifecycle and especially upon retirement when
the drive leaves the data center.
Circuit City to close 155 stores &
layoff 17% of workforce
Yesterdays the Circuit City employees hit the blogs all over the net
talking about how they have lost their jobs and many stores will be
closing. Today Circuit City released the official announcement;
close 155 stores and layoff 17% of their workforce. However, the
announcement doesn't come as a surprise as Circuit City has been in
big trouble for quite some time.
Read Circuit City's press release here. See the store closing
list
here.
Intel i7 Coverage The Intel i7 craziness is blasting it's way
through the review sites. Here's a list for your reading enjoyment:
Circuit City layoffs and store closings
announced at store meetings Sunday
That's right, if you missed your special Circuit city meeting this
weekend you may not have a job to go back to. The word is Circuit
City managers called in employees over the weekend to announce 155
store closings and issued mass layoffs. Some departments such as car
installation may be axed altogether. The official word should be out
sometime monday.
