From DailyTech: Clone maker Psystar launched with the intention of making OS X computers for several hundred dollars cheaper than Apple's own offerings. It seemed a win-win for both companies -- Psystar would be selling machines, and Apple would see increased software sales. Furthermore, Psystar's $399 machines targeted different market sectors than Apple's as they were aimed at the bargain market, while Apple's Mini line of desktops were aimed at those seeking a small form factor.

However, Apple quickly showed that just because it's a new century doesn't mean it's turned over a new leaf when it comes to clones. Apple filed suit against Psystar over a host of supposed minor violations of the OS X license, making one thing clear -- it intended to put the company out of business.

Now, in new documents it has been revealed that Judge William Alsup of the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of California has rejected Psystar's argument. Psystar can try to amend its argument to convince the Judge that it has come to a valid argument, but it only has 20 days left before the case is dismissed.

Judge Alsup ruled that the antitrust argument was invalid because OS X had competitors on the market. He states, "The pleadings...fail to allege facts plausibly supporting the counterintuitive claim that Apple's operating system is so unique that it suffers no actual or potential competitors."

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From X-bit Labs: Although Intel Corp.’s initial Core i7 lineup includes a central processing unit that sells below $300, the new microprocessor family may never become mainstream, at least, based on Intel’s plans. Apparently, the quad-core Core i7 will have a tiny share among Intel’s desktop shipments even in three quarters from now.

According to Intel’s plans that X-bit labs has learnt, Intel pushes its highest-performing Core i7 chips based on Nehalem micro-architecture only into personal computers aimed at consumers. But even on that market Intel has no plans to be really aggressive with promotion of the new platform or flood the market with processors, while reducing the supplies of existing Intel Core 2 Quad central processing units (CPUs).

The share of Intel Core i7 chips is expected to be below 1% of all microprocessors that Intel will ship in Q4 2008, slides from certain product planning documents claim. Moreover, the proportion of Core i7 chips will hardly rise above 3% even in Q2 2009. In fact, even in the third quarter of next year, when Intel releases the first mainstream market-oriented Nehalem-based quad-core chip code-named Lynnfield, the share of Core i7-based platforms is projected to be below 5% of all CPUs sold by Intel.

The comparatively slow adoption rate of a new microprocessor design may be easily explained by the fact that Intel Core i7 chips require a completely new infrastructure: new core-logic sets, new mainboards, new sockets, cooling systems and so on, which is why system integrators might not demand rapid transition. In fact, since Lynnfield will use different infrastructure and code-named Ibex Peak core-logic compared to currently-shipping Core i7/Bloomfield (which is supported by Intel X58-based mainboards), its adoption rate may also not be fast.

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From PC World: Microsoft faces a tough sell with its latest mobile browser, Internet Explorer 6, since consumers will need to buy more powerful handsets to run it.

Microsoft, which announced plans earlier this week to launch IE6 with market leader China Mobile, has made no secret of the more stringent requirements. It has indicated the software won't be available to download.

The browser requires 500MHz chip processing speeds, according to Lena Goh, director of marketing in Microsoft's mobile communications business for Asia.

Having to buy a new smartphone just to enjoy the benefits of mobile IE6 may put people off considering there are many choices for mobile Web browsers, including the popular Opera Mini and Skyfire.

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From InfoWorld: Toshiba Storage Division announced a breakthrough half-terabyte hard disk drive in a 2.5-inch form factor on Wednesday.

The mini-drive is targeted for inclusion in mobile devices by OEMs.

The high-capacity drives are expected to enhance the capabilities and thus the interest in the new class of sub- and mini-notebooks coming into the market.

Toshiba Model MKxx55GSX will most likely also be included in game consoles and printers.

The drive might also be designed as an external storage devices if an OEM is willing to wrap a plastic shell around the drive, add a connector like USB, and sell it as an external storage device. Weighing only 3.6 ounces as produced by Toshiba even with the additional weight of an external shell, the device could be easily packed in carry-on luggage.

Although the units will ship in volume in December, OEMs may not have products incorporating the devices until the spring.

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From InfoWorld: Asustek Computer plans to launch an all-in-one PC built into a monitor designed to rival Apple's iMac on Thursday at a news conference in Taipei, according to a company e-mail.

The Eee Top , apparently the new name for what Asus once called the Eee Monitor, will sport a slender 15.9-inch touchscreen, use Microsoft Windows XP, and has an 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor inside.

The ET1603 is clearly designed to be a more expensive device. It boasts an ATI HD3450 graphics card and has a battery, apparently to make it easy to carry around. The device weighs 4.4-kilograms, according to Asustek.

The ET1602 does not include a specialized graphics card nor battery, but most of the rest of its specifications are the same as the other model, with 160G byte hard disk drive, 1GB of DRAM, wireless Internet capability via Wi-Fi 802.11n, a 1.3-megapixel Web cam, two 4-watt speakers and several choices of ports including USB and three audio ports.

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From PC World: Chip vendor Nvidia plans to use its Cuda parallel computing architecture in all its GPUs (graphics processing units), including its Tegra system-on-a-chip for mobile devices.

Nvidia's Cuda is a C language environment that enables developers to write software to solve complex computational problems by tapping into the many-core parallel processing power of GPUs, according to the company.

The first version of Tegra, scheduled to ship by the middle of next year, will not however have Cuda, said Jen-Hsun Huang, cofounder, president and chief executive officer of Nvidia, in an interview on Wednesday.

Cuda is part of Nvidia's strategy to position its GPUs, traditionally strong in high-end graphics and gaming, as general purpose, parallel computing processors, that can be used in a variety of scientific applications and commercial applications such as financial computing, Huang said.

"We believe that a GPU is not just for graphics anymore, and can be really used for anything that involves a lot of data and mathematics," Huang added.

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From CNET News.com: Microsoft on Tuesday said it is changing its strategy for offering PC antivirus software, with plans to discontinue its subscription-based consumer security suite and instead offer individuals free software to protect their PCs.

Code-named Morro, the new offering will be available in the second half of 2009 and will protect against viruses, spyware, rootkits, and Trojans, the company said in a statement.

With the arrival of Morro, Microsoft plans to stop selling the Windows Live OneCare service, although the two services are not identical. Morro lacks OneCare's non-security features, such as printer sharing and automated PC tuneup. Morro will, however, use fewer resources than the subscription-based offering, making it better suited to low-bandwith systems and less powerful PCs.

Microsoft decided to switch to a free product because there are still so many PCs out there that lack any antivirus software.

"Because they're not concerned about malware, the number of people who don't have antivirus software or don't keep it up to date exceeds 50 percent in developed markets, and it's worse in emerging markets," Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management for the Online Services and Windows Division at Microsoft, said in an interview. "Live OneCare was tailored for developed markets with broadband...and it's not meeting the needs of a lot of customers."

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From DailyTech: It seems like everything uses USB today from cell phone chargers to keyboards, mice, printers, and cameras. What many really want are faster USB connections. USB 3.0 has been on the horizon for a while now and for a time the future of the specification and cross compatibility was unknown.

The USB 3.0 Promoters Group announced yesterday that the USB 3.0 specification was finally complete. The specification is a sort of roadmap that allows manufacturers to build controllers and products utilizing the USB 3.0 standard. The specification has now been turned over to the USB Implementers Forum, the managing body for USB specifications.

Members of the USB 3.0 promoters group including -- HP, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, ST-NXP, and Texas instruments -- have had a long road with accusations from non-forum members that it was keeping the completed specification from other manufacturers in order to give member companies a competitive edge in the market.

The accusations led AMD and NVIDIA to announce that they intended to begin work on their own open host controller for USB 3.0. This move was potentially catastrophic for USB 3.0 as different manufacturers would not have been able to guarantee compatibility across platforms for USB 3.0 devices.

USB-IF president and chairman Jeff Ravencraft said in a statement, "SuperSpeed USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology. Today’s consumers are using rich media and large digital files that need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice versa. SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone from the tech-savvy executive to the average home user."

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