Business Tech

Windows 7 could be one of Microsoft's greatest operating systems, if it fulfills the promise shown by the unofficial beta version (build 7000) we have been testing for the past couple of days.

Let me preface these quick impressions of Redmond's latest opus by saying that I came to Windows 7 after having happily run the much-maligned Windows Vista on my Intel Core 2 Duo-based PC for the past 18 months (alongside Ubuntu).

I found Vista to be a worthy upgrade from Windows XP SP2. Despite its obvious flaws (can you say "resource hog"?) and the … Read more

Sun Microsystems announced Wednesday it has acquired Q-layer, a Belgium-based cloud-computing specialist.

Q-layer's technology adds automation to both public and private clouds, allowing companies to simplify the management and deployment of data center applications. Its software will give customers greater flexibility in areas such as servers, storage, and bandwidth, Sun said.

Like many other companies in the tech sector, Sun has been orienting itself to cloud computing, a Web-focused spin on an old concept in which a sizable proportion of data and computing resources are hosted and managed in a central location, away from local machines.

Details of the … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices' manufacturing spinoff got an all-clear from the U.S. government on Tuesday.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), part of the U.S. Treasury Department, gave the green light to AMD and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) to create The Foundry Company, the manufacturing operations that AMD spun off back in October.

CFIUS has also determined that "the proposed additional investment in AMD by Mubadala is not a covered transaction subject to CFIUS review," according to AMD.

ATIC will own 65.8 percent of The Foundry Company and AMD 34.… Read more

Both SanDisk and Samsung announced solid-state drives on Tuesday--though that's where the similarity ends. SanDisk's SSDs are aimed at Netbooks, while Samsung's new SSDs are for the high-performance server market.

SanDisk is debuting its new 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB pSSD-P2 and pSSD-S2 solid-state drives at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Samsung's 100GB SS805 drive, on the other hand, is being introduced on Tuesday at the Storage Visions 2009 Conference, also in Las Vegas.

The second-generation SanDisk drives, designed as drop-in replacements for hard-disk drives, use the Serial-ATA or SATA interface. First-generation … Read more

More than half a million of India's small businesses that have never owned PCs before will acquire their first computers this year, according to a new study released Monday.

According to Access Markets International Partners (AMI-Partners), nearly 22 percent of small businesses, or companies with up to 99 employees, in India have plans to invest in computers for the first time over the next 12 months.

While buying their first PCs, these small businesses will also boost spending in other IT sectors in India, such as software, services, and security, the research house said.

Dipendra Mitra, an analyst at … Read more

Correction at 8:00 a.m. PST: Logitech employs over 9,000 people.

Swiss peripherals manufacturer Logitech plans to cut approximately 15 percent of its salaried workforce. Logitech has more than 9,000 employees worldwide.

In a statement Monday, the company cited the deepening economic gloom as the reason for the cut.

"During the December quarter, the retail environment deteriorated significantly," Logitech Chief Executive Gerald Quindlen said. "We experienced varying degrees of weakness across all geographies and channels, as our customers reduced inventory levels in the face of weaker consumer demand. Moreover, we expect the economic environment … Read more

Updated at 11:05 p.m. PST with additional information throughout.

Another Netbook? No, not exactly. Hewlett-Packard's new Pavilion dv2 is an ultraportable, thank you. And the new Athlon Neo silicon inside from Advanced Micro Devices will try to prove that point.

AMD is introducing new chips at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that target the no-man's land between Netbooks and notebooks. Typically, these designs are referred to as ultraportables--the most salient examples being Apple's MacBook Air, the Toshiba Portege, and the Sony Vaio TT series.

So what makes AMD's platform different? In one … Read more

Amid current pessimism over the global economy, more reports of layoffs have surfaced online.

PC manufacturer Lenovo is reportedly laying off 200 staff in its Beijing-based headquarters, of which 10 or so are senior management, China Tech News reported Monday.

The report quoted an inside source as saying official cuts are still going through government channels for approval, but added Lenovo "may conduct large-scale adjustments in the Asia-Pacific region" as well.

A Lenovo representative dismissed the reports as rumors, telling ZDNet Asia the company could not provide additional information as it does not comment on speculation.

Software giant … Read more

Intel and Adobe Systems on Monday announced that they're working to adapt Adobe's Flash media technology, widespread on PCs, to work in TV-focused devices.

The two companies will work on fine-tuning the Flash Player and Flash Lite for Intel's Media Processor CE 3100. The goal is for Intel to ship the first CE 3100 chip with Flash Lite support before the middle of this year.

A Flash-CE 3100 combo would give consumers a better viewing experience of Web-based and other videos via digital TVs, Blu-ray Disc players, cable set-top boxes, and audiovisual devices, the companies said.

"… Read more