The rumors can finally be weeded out and now we know to be true:

Warner Bros. Records’ R.E.M. and leading social music discovery service iLike announced today that Accelerate, the best-selling rock band’s 14th studio album, will stream in its entirety exclusively on iLike and its syndicates beginning March 24th. A first for the company, the iLike Worldwide Listening Party will continue through March 26th, six days before the album’s North American release on April 1st, 2008. Additionally, R.E.M. will record an exclusive video message introducing and discussing the album that will be available via iLike for distribution across the Web.

“Collaborating with iLike, and debuting Accelerate across the Web is in keeping with the spirit and immediacy of the album.” says the band’s frontman Michael Stipe. “We wanted to do something superfast and super real. Music, art, and pop culture are about right now, and nothing else matters. Accelerate is our turbo-charged response to the times we live in.”

In addition to being available on iLike’s website (www.ilike.com), the iLike Worldwide Accelerate Listening Party and exclusive R.E.M. video message will debut through the iLike Sidebar desktop plugin for iTunes and Windows Media Player (www.iLike.com/download), as well as across the Web via iLike’s leading applications on Facebook, Bebo, hi5, and for the iPhone. R.E.M. have already been using the iLike Universal Artist Dashboard to post content, reaching their fans across multiple syndication channels via iLike’s “Post Once, Publish Everywhere” platform. The album will also be available for pre-order via iLike’s retail links to iTunes and Amazon.com.

“With 11 songs clocking in at just 34 minutes, Accelerate is intense and relevant, with songs inspired by the WTO riots in Seattle, the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and other topical themes,” said Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike. “We are honored to play a role in helping R.E.M. introduce this album to their fans across the Web. This is our first-ever Worldwide Listening Party and R.E.M. has set a very high bar.”

In many ways, Accelerate marks a break from R.E.M.’s recent albums, 1998’s Up, 2001’s Reveal, and 2004’s Around The Sun — all finely crafted works exploring the textures and possibilities of the recording studio. Accelerate ties together the band’s entire canon as part of the vision for the new album turning old dreams into a new reality.

To listen to R.E.M’s Accelerate and watch the band’s exclusive video message, please visit: www.iLike.com/R.E.M. To learn more about iLike’s multimedia blogging tools and other free services for artists, please visit: www.iLike.com/forartists.

Astraware is pleased to announce an update to Astraware Solitaire which more easily allows the addition of new graphical features like extra card backs and backgrounds.

Whilst players will see no difference in the way the game plays, Astraware Solitaire version 1.20 now includes a different way of handling resources so instead of having multiple special versions of Astraware Solitaire on their devices, players can keep one copy of the game on their device and install seasonal card back sets as they want. Spooky Halloween and seasonal Winter card back sets which were included in special versions of Astraware Solitaire are now available separately, and a brand new Valentine-themed card set is released just in time for the most romantic day of the year.

Version 1.20 of Astraware Solitaire is a FREE upgrade for everyone who already owns any version of the game! Users wishing to upgrade from the standard version of Astraware Solitaire can simply install the new version over the top. Users of Astraware Solitaire Winter or Halloween editions should install the new version and add the card back packs they want.

Astraware Solitaire is available from the Astraware website – http://www.astraware.com/solitaire. New users can purchase a registration code for $19.95. ]]> http://svenontech.com/2008/01/30/astraware-solitaire-gets-an-update-and-romantic-valentines-card-backs/feed/ 0 http://svenontech.com/2007/07/09/chocolate-gets-even-sweeter-the-second-time-around-exclusively-at-verizon-wireless/ http://svenontech.com/2007/07/09/chocolate-gets-even-sweeter-the-second-time-around-exclusively-at-verizon-wireless/#comments Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:27:32 +0000 Sven Rafferty http://svenontech.com/2007/07/09/chocolate-gets-even-sweeter-the-second-time-around-exclusively-at-verizon-wireless/

The Chocolate by LG is back and sweeter than ever. Decked out in traditional Black, the Chocolate will also sport two new colors, Black Cherry and Blue Mint, when it hits Verizon Wireless stores July 9. The leading wireless company with the most reliable wireless voice and data network and LG, the global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, today announced a new feature-rich successor to its popular music-centric best seller.

Slimmer and sleeker, the new Chocolate has a rich assortment of features, including a vibrating touch keypad and a new Navigation Wheel with Trace Motion light. The wheel allows for easy navigation through phone functions, as well as quick and simple functionality while browsing music and videos.

Perfect for V CAST Music customers who crave a fully-functional mobile music device, Chocolate by LG offers advanced multimedia features such as a microSD™ memory slot that supports up to a 4GB card, a music player, a powerful speaker for music and dedicated keys for easy access to stored music. Chocolate by LG is also V CAST-capable and perfect for use with Get It Now® applications, such as VZ NavigatorSM, the location-based service from Verizon Wireless that provides turn-by-turn directions to more than 14 million destinations and points of interest throughout the U.S.

The Chocolate by LG from Verizon Wireless offers the following features and capabilities:

· Music player for MP3 and WMA songs
· Powerful speaker for music
· Dedicated key for easy access to the music player
· Background music – music plays in the background while sending messages, browsing the Web, etc.
· My Music – songs are automatically organized by artist, genre and album
· Music only mode (RF off except Bluetooth®)
· MicroSD memory port to store pictures, videos, music and sounds, compatible with microSD cards up to 4GB
· 1.3 megapixel camera and camcorder
· Camera resolution: 1280 x 960, 640 x 480 (default), 320 x 240 pixels
· V CAST Video – stream and download video clips
· Video recording time: 30 seconds for sending
· Video player for MP4, 3GP, 3G2 formats
· Set videos (under 5MB) as wallpaper
· Video resolution: 176 x 144 pixels
· Video format: 3G2
· Zoom: up to 2x
· Self-timer: three, five or ten seconds
· Image editor – zoom, rotate, crop
· Mirror for self-portrait capability
· Supported Bluetooth Profiles: headset, hands-free, dial-up networking, advanced audio distribution (stereo), phone book access, basic print (print and send user-generated pictures to a printer via Bluetooth), object push for vCard and vCalendar, file transfer and basic imaging
· Speaker-independent voice commands: call, send message to, go to, check, lookup, play, My Account
· TTY/TDD support
· Hearing aid compatible (M4-rating)
· Text, picture/video messaging
· Mobile Web 2.0SM
· Web-based e-mail, instant messaging and chat
· Flash user interface for clear images, text and fun animations
· Phone book with 1,000 contacts – each stores five numbers, two e-mail addresses and a picture ID
· Emergency contacts – enter three contacts and personal information, in case of emergency
· Frequency 1.9 GHz CDMA PCS, 800 MHz CDMA (digital dual-band)
· Data transmission high-speed EV-DO
· Dimensions: 3.85” (h) x 1.87” (w) x 0.67” (d)
· Weight: 3.24 oz.
· LCD 262K color TFT, 240 x 320 pixels, 11 lines
· Standard battery: 800 mAh Li-Polymer
· Up to 250 minutes of usage time or up to 350 hours of standby time

The Chocolate by LG will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores from coast to coast for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new 2-year agreement. V CAST Music songs are 99 cents if purchased from the PC or $1.99 for two copies if purchased and downloaded over-the-air onto a V CAST Music phone. The second copy is sent to the customer’s PC account.

For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or visit www.verizonwireless.com .

A new version of Greenlight Wireless' Skweezer service, which optimizes desktop Web content for mobile devices, is currently wrapping up beta testing and is slated for release on June 18th, 2007.

This latest version of Skweezer has been redesigned from top to bottom with one goal in mind: to get users to the content they're looking for as quickly as possible. To that end, the user interface has been completely redesigned to reduce keystrokes and take advantage of "hot key" navigation that utilizes a phone's keypad. Skweezer will now also use a robust, new search system to produce highly relevant Web, local, and image search results across multiple device platforms. Skweezer's code-base and hosting infrastructure have also been completely updated to provide the fastest Skweezer ever.

Several new features will be included in Skweezer 4.0, including dynamic image optimization, a completely updated directory, improved device-recognition technology, and a feature that will detect mobile-friendly Web sites so they won't be reformatted.

Skweezer is a free service that optimizes Web pages and searches for use on PDAs and cell phones. Skweezer compresses and reformats content being downloaded, so that it loads faster, looks better, and is easier to navigate. Skweezer has introduced many mobile browsing innovations, including the first pagination system that splits large Web pages up into smaller sub-pages for viewing on cell phones with limited "deck sizes", the first mobile Web page translation feature, and the first portal-based mobile RSS reader. Skweezer is completely platform-independent and can be accessed from Pocket PC, Palm, MS Smartphone, Blackberry, Symbian, PSP2, and WAP 2.0 compliant devices. Skweezer is also available as a "private label" solution for wireless carriers and content providers.

Looks like those new LED screens that many speculated wouldn’t appear until Christmas has arrived early from Santa’s bag. With a speed bump from the new Intel Santa Rosa chips and an improved video card, the new MacBook Pros just keep getting better and better making my Rev A MBP look more and more dated. But that’s alright, when the new Cinema screens are released at WWDC next week with built-in iSight, I’ll be happy with it and the new Mac Pro (with Blu-Ray?) I’ll order.

Here’s the details:

The 2.2 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:

• 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440-by-900 LCD display;
• 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
• 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
• DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
• built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
• one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;
• Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;
• the infrared Apple Remote; and
• 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.4 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

• 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440-by-900 LCD display;
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
• 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
• DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
• built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
• one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;
• Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;
• the infrared Apple Remote; and
• 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.4 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:

Intel Corporation executives today detailed more than 20 new products, technology innovations and industry initiatives — many of them industry firsts — aimed at making the World Wide Web, computers and consumer electronics devices much more responsive, friendlier and secure.

Under the backdrop of Intel’s leadership in 45nm Hi-k metal gate silicon technology and how it will ignite new innovation and growth opportunities, Intel executives at the Intel Developer Forum disclosed new performance details for its next-generation “Penryn” processor family. The company also unveiled two product roadmaps for Intel architecture (IA)-based System on Chip (SOC) consumer electronic (CE) devices and business uses.

“Welcome to the era of multicore, an era in which all of our computing capabilities will multiply our own personal capabilities,” said Justin R. Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer. “This Beijing developer forum will show how our multiple innovations go hand in hand with evolutions in social networking, PC and TV entertainment, online commerce and other growing demands on the Internet. Today, Intel is delivering a breadth of multicore processors worldwide and a product roadmap providing the incredible performance boost and energy efficiency needed to put the consumer more in control of the information age.”

The IDF is being held for the first time in Beijing. Last month, Intel announced plans to invest $2.5 billion to build China’s first 300mm wafer fabrication facility in the city of Dalian.

Multicore Performance Era, Core Microarchitecture

Gelsinger provided performance indicators for Intel’s upcoming Penryn family of processors. For desktop PCs, he said to expect increases of about 15 percent for imaging-related applications; 25 percent for 3-D rendering; more than 40 percent for gaming; and more than 40 percent faster video encoding with Intel SSE4 optimized video encoders. The indicators were based on pre-production 45nm Hi-k Intel(R) quad core processor running at 3.33 Gigahertz (GHz) with a 1333 Megahertz (MHz) front side bus (FSB) and 12MB cache versus an Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Extreme processor QX6800 introduced last week at 2.93 GHz with 1066 FSB and 8MB cache.

For high-performance computing (HPC) and workstation systems, Gelsinger said to expect gains up to an estimated 45 percent for bandwidth intensive applications; and a 25 percent increase for servers using Java(1). These indicators were derived from pre-production 45nm Hi-k Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors with 1600 MHz front side bus for workstation and HPC, and a 1333 MHz front side bus for servers versus today’s quad-core Intel(R) Xeon(R) X5355 processors.

Gelsinger said that Intel has begun planning products based on a highly parallel, IA-based programmable architecture codenamed “Larrabee.” It will be easily programmable using many existing software tools, and designed to scale to trillions of floating point operations per second (Teraflops) of performance. The Larrabee architecture will include enhancements to accelerate applications such as scientific computing, recognition, mining, synthesis, visualization, financial analytics and health applications.

The company also has plans for Intel(R) QuickAssist Technology – a comprehensive initiative to optimize the use of accelerators in servers. Accelerators increase the performance of a single function, like security encryption or financial computation, while reducing power consumption. This initiative includes support for acceleration using IA-based multi-core processors and third party accelerators working together in Intel-based servers, and developing new integrated accelerators inside the IA-based processor itself.

Gelsinger unveiled “Tolapai” plans, the first in what will be a family of enterprise-class “system-on-chip” (SoC) products that integrate several key system components into a single Intel architecture-based processor. The 2008 Tolapai product is expected to reduce the chip sizes by up to 45 percent and power consumption by approximately 20 percent compared to a standard four-chip design(2), while improving throughput performance and processor efficiency. Tolapai will include the new Intel(R) QuickAssist Integrated Accelerator technology.

Gelsinger also outlined product plans, including one for Intel’s high-end multi-processor servers (codenamed “Caneland”). The quad- and dual-core Intel Xeon(R) processor 7300 series will arrive in the third quarter in 80- and 50-watt versions for blades. The new servers will complete the company’s transition to its Intel(R) Core(TM) microarchitecture for Xeon processors. Sun Microsystems demonstrated its Solaris operating system running on an Intel Xeon(R) 5100 series processor based system using Intel Dynamic Power technology, a new capability focused on reducing the power required for a memory subsystem.

Further bolstering PC security and manageability benefits, Intel will introduce the next-generation Intel(R) vPro(TM) processor technology, codenamed “Weybridge,” in the second half of the year and using the new Intel(R) 3 Series Chipset family, formerly codenamed “Bear Lake.”

This will follow the launch of Intel(R) Centrino(TM) Pro processor technology, bringing the business-centric features of vPro systems to notebooks for the first time.

Finally, Microsoft demonstrated Windows(1) Server code name “Longhorn” and two complementary technologies: Windows Server Core, and its new hypervisor-based virtualization solution, Windows Server virtualization, running on the Intel quad-core Xeon processors. The integrated platform combination, demonstrates running up to 8 core virtual machines, with “hot add” features, delivering increased efficiency and uptime for IT managers.

Home PCs, Consumer Electronics Innovation

Also at IDF, Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group, said Intel is focused on developing products and technologies that provide consumers with greater control, choice, clarity and community – the “4C’s” – across computers and CE platforms spanning PCs, laptops, televisions, set-top-boxes and other networked media players.

Kim detailed Intel’s strategy to deliver a common, unified IA-based processor foundation across PC and CE platforms. He said the Intel(R) CE 2110 Media Processor, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) architecture for CE devices will help manufacturers accelerate time to market for smarter, more cost-effective designs that provide necessary performance, flexibility and headroom. Kim said the company will deliver its first CE-optimized IA-based SoC in 2008.

Intel also plans to deliver a number of desktop computer products later this year, including updates to its Intel(R) Viiv(TM) processor technology roadmap, and a new high-end enthusiast and gaming platform codenamed “Skulltrail.”

Future generations of Intel Viiv processor technology will be based on the Intel(R) 3 Series Chipset family arriving this quarter and delivering improved graphics support with features such as enhanced Intel(R) Clear Video Technology and hardware support for Microsoft(1) DX10 for smoother high-definition playback and 3D visuals. Intel 3 Series Chipsets also boost system performance with a faster 1333 MHz front side bus and support for DDR3 memory, PCI Express(1) 2.0 and Intel(R) Turbo Memory for application acceleration and faster boot times.

Intel R&D Sets Course For Innovation

In his opening address, Rattner reiterated the company’s goals for processor performance and energy efficiency noting that Intel will be able to drive down power consumption by a factor of 10 for the ultra mobile computing segment by 2010. Intel will also create future processors at Teraflops speeds, and Rattner urged the industry to work together to take advantage of this raw processing power. The next stage of Intel’s tera-scale research will be around “stacked” memory on top of the 80-core research chip Intel demonstrated earlier this year.

If you’ve got a device like a Motorola RAZR with it’s funny looking USB connector, then you have a USB On-the-Go (OTG) device. Those little connectors have made things handy for sure (well, except Motorola’s use of it since it won’t charge the RAZR with any OTG cable since it’s an “unauthorized” charger) and now the USB Implementers Forum has decided, like SD cards, to make things smaller. Today it has announced at the Intel Developer Forum Spring 2007 that the micro-cable is coming!

“The USB-IF continues to optimize its suite of specifications to meet the evolving requirements of the industry,” said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF President. “Our move from the Mini-series cable connectors to the Micro-series reflects our support of the industry’s need for smaller form factor devices.”

So prepare for getting even more cables and connectors to keep your newest electronics connected and charged. Mmm, more stuff for the junk drawer!

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at this years Macworld Expo, the first thing that came to mind after digesting the incredible device was how this would filter to the iPod line. Known for creating various models in the iPod line, this would fit just perfect for Apple to introduce a new top of the line player. With the Internet showing a full-screen iPod model for nearly a year now, the postings and maybe even pictures of this fabled model may indeed simply be a working model of the next-generation iPod video with many software aspects of the iPhone built into it. Apple would easily be able to bring a full-screen iPod to market with all the features of the iPhone minus the communication aspects. We know Apple loves spreading the love with its software (remember when Jobs dropped the Intel bomb and told the stunned crowd at WWDC that Apple had been running OS X on Intel boxes since 10.0) and it just isn’t a stretch to think that that iPhone and the 6G iPod would be designed in unison.

If Apple has an iPod full-screen version in the labs running iPhone software with the fancy touch screen and all, it’s surely scheduled for a fall release. Not desiring to stifle sales of the already outrageously priced iPhone, Apple will hold off on the 6G iPod release until the phones fully saturated the markets conscious state. With a scheduled June release (tag a month or two on for reality), three to four months of a window would be expected before the next iPod were to grace Apple Store and others shelves…just in time for Christmas, of course.

The name is surely to see a change for this incredible and most advanced iPod ever. It wouldn’t be with any surprise to see the current 5.5G sticking around while the high-priced 6G makes a foot hold in the market. With the shuffle at the bottom, the nano as the mid-line, the “regular” iPod in the upper-line, it would only make sense to name the next top of the line iPod more in line with other top of the line Apple products. For the laptop line, you have the MacBook Pro and for the desktop line, the Mac Pro. So, doesn’t it just make pure marketing sense to name the full-screen iPod the iPod Pro? Would seem to me. Before you start with the counter argument that the Pro insignia for the two computer models signifies performance for professionals and sticking Pro onto an iPod wouldn’t really jive, remember what the iPhone runs on: OS X. What stops Apple from allowing the iPod Pro from running some robust applications along side its Address Book and Calendar that already grace the iPod? Further, with a 120 GB drive to be included and possibly Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it just seems to be the perfect professional iPod!

Well, another year has passed and SvenOnTech celebrates its first birthday. Blossoming out of Sven’s personal blog which went from random babbling to a more precise techno-babbling, it was felt that the site needed a new name and a single focus. So, here we are, one year later and what a year it has been!

We hope to bring you even more news and reviews that fill in the gaps left by the other more flashy and eye candy sites on the web when concerning technology. We’re not the only one doing this, but we hope to be the best one doing it. We’re sure ’07 is going to be a great year for proving that, even if other veterans like Shawn King want to be critical of our articles for hitting a nerve. It’s part of the game and we’re up to it. We graduated high school.