Deep Tech

HANOVER, Germany--Intel launched its E5 family of Xeon processors today, a tremendously important product line for the chipmaker that brings new performance to Intel-based servers and workstations.

The E5 line now comes in two varieties, Intel announced at a launch event here at the CeBIT tech show. First is the E5-2600 series for the mainstay of the server market, systems with two processor sockets. Second is the E5-1600 series chiefly for single-socket workstations.

The Xeon chips are a very important part of Intel's business. For one thing, servers are a growing market because of cloud computing, Internet businesses, and … Read more

HANOVER, Germany--Wish you had one of those spy-movie scramblers the president uses to to keep snoopers from tapping into his calls?

At the CeBIT show here, Secusmart debuted a microSD card with a built-in processor that lets people do just that with ordinary smartphones. It plugs into phones with a microSD slot--yes, that means no iPhones--then encrypts voice and SMS communications.

The technology uses VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) to actually place the calls, which means it needs 3G or Wi-Fi connections, said Hans-Christoph Quelle, a managing director at the German company. With that connection, it provides real-time, full-duplex communications--in … Read more

HANOVER, Germany--Today, baseball is the statistician's playground, but telematics technology that tracks players and the ball could bring the same numeric precision to soccer as well.

At the CeBIT trade show here, the Fraunhofer Institute is showing technology that attaches chips with radio transmitters to soccer players and the ball. A collection of 12 receivers around a stadium measures the players' position 200 times a second and the ball's position 2,000 times a second, said Ingmar Bretz, a project leader.

"You can distinguish between good and bad players in real time," he said, by gauging … Read more

Adobe released the fourth version of its Lightroom software today, adding video abilities and editing finesse while cutting its price in half.

Lightroom 4 costs $149 new and $79 as an upgrade, a big step down from the earlier prices of $299 new and $99 upgrade. That's going the same direction Apple has with its competing Aperture, though not as dramatically: an introductory $499 price, then a drop to $199, and in the App Store version now, $80. You can download Lightroom 4 for Windows and Mac.

Lightroom is geared for photography professionals and enthusiasts, especially those who want … Read more

HANOVER, Germany--Google Executive Chairman is hopping from country to country on a European tour, but he said today the Internet is breaking down those national barriers.

"Loyalty is not just to a nation but to friends and interests," Schmidt said in a speech at the opening ceremony of the CeBIT technology show here today. "That will change everything for citizens, states, and society."

That may cause indigestion for any number of customs agents, tax collectors, and politicians, but it fits right in with Schmidt's optimistic view of the world: "It's a wonderful, wonderful … Read more

HANOVER, Germany--Who knew an industrial robot could be so cheap?

That's one of the messages that Robotation Academy staff hope to lodge in the minds of the people who attend its training programs here at the vast trade-show fairgrounds. Deutsche Messe, which operates the gargantuan CeBIT show just now getting under way this year, also runs the academy year-round as part of a project to encourage adoption of robotics in manufacturing.

Deutsche Messe likes to drum up business for industries that might buy a booth at its trade shows, but the organization found that a "huge percentage" … Read more

BARCELONA--It's been an action-packed two years since Jeff Jaffe took over as the World Wide Web Consortium's chief executive, but more action is the order of the day at the standards group.

The W3C oversees the standardization of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), technologies that carry tremendous importance as the Web expands from a medium to publish documents into a foundation for applications that can run on anything from mobile phones and cars to TVs and tablets. These Web standards, combined with the JavaScript programming language and other related technologies, let programmers reach a … Read more

Apparently Google has put some thought into this idea of bringing super-fast fiber-optic broadband to Kansas City.

The company has applied for a patent for "general edging systems and methods," which the application bills as "a low-impact, convenient, time-efficient and cost-saving optical fiber deployment technology."

The application describes a flat, perhaps bendable strip of "edging" that carries fiber-optic lines or coaxial cables tucked within. The edging could be slipped into a shallow slot, perhaps along a fence or driveway or dug into a lawn, or it could be camouflaged to fit into the garden … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--I understand the appeal of a bigger screen.

You get a genuinely good way to compete with the iPhone, which suits me since I like Android fine. You get better video, bigger maps, more room to read e-mail, and Web pages of much better fidelity.

But in the case of the Galaxy Nexus, you also get a phone that's just impractical for one-handed use.

At least that's my assessment after more than two months of steady use. If you're a professional basketball player, you might see things differently.

I really like all the pixels that are … Read more