2006/11/02

Windows CE 6.0 released

Microsoft have released Windows CE 6.0, this is also available under their Shared Source Initiative which allows developers to customise the kernel and other parts for their particular application.

New enhancements include increased virtual memory (from 32MB to 2GB), more processes (32,000 from 32) which will allow for expanded devices.

Devices aren't likely to appear until next year with the new OS.

Dell and AMD now bed partners

Dell has released a notebook based on AMD CPUs.

The Inspiron 1501, allows configuration options of a Sempron, mobile Turion 64, and dual-core Turion 64 X2 chips.

Dell joins a long list of other notebook vendors using AMD. Dell have previously announced servers with AMD CPU's, which completely went against their Intel only stance.

It looks likely they've have a complete range of Intel and AMD based systems and users can decide.

WirelessHD

A new wireless protocol is being developed, WirelessHD which is HDMI over wireless.

Designed to remove the need for cables between systems, it will use 60GHz radios and support about 10m range. Equipment doesn't need to be line of site.

It's just an agreement at the moment to produce a specification, but it's got some big names behind it (Sony, LG, Samsung etc).

Unfortunately 60GHz is unlicensed everywhere, so there may be some regulatory hurdles to get the standard actually out there.

U3 USB/Flash drive software

U3 is a really clever system whereby applications are modified to work with U3 and when say a USB drive is inserted into a PC the apps are ready to use with all the configuration data. When the drive is removed the application/configuration data goes with it, so nothing is left on the PC.

If it all works, it could make remote working much easier as a user just needs to take their USB drive with them and plug into a Windows based PC.

There's a fair few apps that have been made U3 aware, including OpenOffice, PuTTY, WinSCP, Skype, Trillian and many more that can be purchased.

Now they need a Mac version.

2006/10/30

Adobe CS3 to be universal

Though Adobe's Soundbooth will only run on Intel based machines (Windows or MacOS X), Adobe's next generation of Creative Suite tools wont have that limitation and will run on both PowerPC and Intel architechtures as a Universal Binary.

Adobe still have a lot of customers utilising PowerPC machines and it would seem unwise to not give them an upgrade path.