Articles by Walaika Haskins

AMD on Thursday began shipping its latest quad-core Opteron processor, codenamed "Shanghai." Shipping earlier than previously planned, the chips arrive on the market shortly before the expected arrival of new Nehalem processors, competing hardware made by rival Intel....

The ongoing global economic crisis will likely cut expected IT spending growth in half in 2009, according to a newly revised report released Wednesday by IDC. Previous forecasts predicted growth of 5.9 percent; that number has decreased to 2.6 percent in the more recent report. In the U.S., IDC anticipates IT spending to decline to 0.9 percent in ...

IBM announced a partnership with International Broadband Electric Communications (IBEC) Tuesday that will see the two companies begin deploying Broadband over Power Line (BPL) networks at electric cooperatives throughout the eastern U.S. The two companies are working to resolve an issue that has plagued U.S. residents in rural areas -- no access t...

Just like anyone else who saw the original "Star Wars" when it was released back in the late '70s, I've always wanted to enter the galactic fray and emerge triumphant in a lightsaber duel, to cross swords with a Dark Side opponent and hear the vwhoom-vwhoom as my saber slices through the air and sparks fly It's a fantasy that I expected would remai...

It seems like every month or so another video site rolls out online. There's YouTube, Joost, Jaman, iTunes, Miro, PluggedIn and Yahoo, not to mention offerings from ABC, Cartoon Network, ESPN Fox, Hulu and Spike, just to name a few. As the choices for Internet TV viewers multiply, a need has arisen for firms and utilities that bring order to the c...

More details about Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 operating system emerged Wednesday. The OS will have a shorter boot time; offer greater reliability; more efficient memory usage and improved battery life for laptops, according to Microsoft's Jon DeVaan, Steven Sinofsky and Mike Anguilo, who spoke at the Windows Hardware Engineering conference....

SanDisk unveiled new technology Wednesday that it said could increase solid-state drive (SSD) performance by up to 100 times in computers running Windows Vista Dubbed "Extreme FFS," the next-generation flash management system is an advanced file system for SSDs that accelerates performance and reliability for computing applications, according to Sa...

For TV networks, a presidential election isn't just a chance to report history-making news. With so many millions of people watching, it's also a chance to show off new technological toys. On Tuesday night, CNN unveiled its new psuedo-holographic imaging technique reminiscent of the "Star Wars" movies During its election night broadcast, the cable ...

Research In Motion (RIM) and AT&T finally put the much-delayed BlackBerry Bold on store shelves Tuesday The device, aimed at corporate and business users, offers international wireless coverage with global 3G capabilities, built-in GPS, WiFi and access to thousands of services and applications available from AT&T's consumer and business application...

Fujitsu debuted two updated models and an entirely new model in its LifeBook line of notebook computers Tuesday. The new U820 and P1630 are new versions of models the hardware maker released in 2007. The all-new LifeBook N7010 features two screens -- a traditional 16-inch wide display as well as a 4-inch color touchscreen situated near the keyboard...

Microsoft on Monday released its Security Intelligence Report (MSIR), which covers the first half of 2008. The report, according to the software maker, is an in-depth look at the overall software security threat environment. It's based on data received from hundreds of millions of computers around the globe During the first half of 2008, the report...

Sony issued a recall Friday for roughly 100,000 notebook batteries. Conducted in partnership with the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission (USCPSC), the recall affects laptop users worldwide. The lithium-ion batteries can overheat and pose a fire and burn hazard to users There have been 19 reports of batteries overheating, including 17 insta...

Netflix and TiVo announced Thursday the rollout of a streaming video service for subscribers. Set for availability in early December, the service appears to be the culmination of a deal the two companies originally announced in 2004. The TiVo-Netflix venture is the latest in a series of similar partnerships Netflix has announced this year. Thus fa...

Netflix subscribers who also happen to own an Xbox 360 -- and have an Xbox Live membership -- learned last summer they'd be able to access streaming video via the gaming console, but what they didn't know until recently is that some of those titles will be available in high definition. Users of the Microsoft's gaming machine will see the feature when the console's "New Xbox Experience" launches Nov. 19...

Microsoft gave developers their first hands-on experience with the upcoming Windows 7 operating system (OS) Tuesday. Set for release in 2010, the version of Windows 7 shown at the company's Professional Developers Conference refines certain aspects of the company's Windows Vista OS and is designed to improve on performance....

Several high-profile technology companies, human rights organizations, academics and investors have joined forces to launch the Global Network Initiative (GNI). Announced Tuesday, the GNI intends to protect and advance freedom of expression and privacy throughout the information and communication technology industry Companies that have signed onto ...

When Nintendo announced its upcoming releases in July at the E3 Conference, one of the most intriguing games for me was "Wii Music." The game's description as something that "makes it easy for people to jam to tunes, even if they don't know anything about music" appealed to the frustrated musician in me However, I could not see how Nintendo was go...

I've never been big on global positioning satellite (GPS) devices. Even though I'm a technophile, it just seemed like one gadget too many. What was wrong with using a map? Unless you're someone whose job demands you travel to locations with which you're not familiar, most people go to generally the same places daily -- work, grocery store, friends and family, mall, and other frequently visited locations...

Amazon announced Thursday general availability of its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), part of the Internet retailer's Web service offerings. Launched in beta 26 months ago, the service provides a resizable compute capacity to businesses with varying server needs "The appealing thing about EC2 is that instead of buying a server, you pay for it by the h...

Netflix and Samsung announced a partnership Thursday that will bring the video rental service's streaming movies to the hardware maker's Web-connect Blu-ray disc players Netflix subscribers can receive Blu-ray and DVD discs by mail with the added option of streaming movies and TV shows instantly from the company's online library. The companies also...