PCs

You might have heard of or even used a powerline network adapter, such as the one made by Netgear that plugs directly into the wall. Now think of a similar-looking device that's an entire computer.

Marvell on Tuesday introduced a new kind of personal computer, called SheevaPlug, along with its Plug Computing initiative. The idea is to make make a high-performance, ultracompact, and green computer that consumers can plug right into a wall power socket.

Because the SheevaPlug draws less than a tenth of the power of a typical PC being used as a home server, according to Marvell, … Read more

Really, one terabyte isn't enough? If so, you'll be pleased to know that your insatiable need for more digital storage has left Seagate no choice but to announce the world's first 1.5TB hard drive. The half-terabyte jump over previous highest capacity 1TB drives, Seagate is happy to point out, represents the largest jump in capacity in hard-drive history. The 3.5-inch Barracuda 7200.11 uses perpendicular magnetic recording, which squeezes more 1s and 0s per square inch than conventional drives, to pack 1.5TB of storage space over four platters. Seagate isn't sharing pricing details … Read more

Hitachi was first to hit the terabyte mark when it announced the 1TB Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive in January 2007. Fast forward a year and a half, and the company is back with not a larger version of the drive but a more efficient model in the Deskstar 7K1000.B. Like its predecessor, the 7K1000.B is a 3.5-inch, 7,200rpm hard drive that serves up 1TB of storage space and a 32MB buffer. It hits that magic terabyte mark, however, by using only three disks--down from the five-disk design of the older 1TB drive. It also borrows from … Read more

Updated 12:00 p.m. Thursday with additional Trusted computing Group comment.

Early this decade, Microsoft weathered unrelenting criticism over a controversial set of technologies known as Palladium, which the company envisioned as creating a kind of secure vault to store passwords or medical records.

Academics warned it could "support remote censorship" and blacklists, likening Palladium to the Soviet Union's efforts to register typewriters and fax machines. Privacy activists predicted it would hand Microsoft "an unprecedented level of control" over the world, and free software doyen Richard Stallman solemnly dubbed it "treacherous computing." … Read more

A service pack became available Tuesday for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 illustration and desktop publishing applications.

Corel's updates add support for more than 25 new camera RAW formats. The company also aimed to iron out some graphic design workflows.

"With this service pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4, we have focused on addressing the major feedback provided by our users," said Gerard Metrailler, senior director of Corel's graphics product management.

Users can obtain the updates automatically via the installed software, or by visiting Corel.com. A free trial of the suite is also available.

CorelDRAW Graphics … Read more

The inventor of the Sugar user interface used in the One Laptop Per Child's XO says his company is developing a version for Intel's own low-cost laptop.

Walter Bender said in an interview Thursday with PC World that "a community volunteer is working with Intel on Sugar for the Classmate PC. Sugar Labs helped to expedite the relationship."

Bender is the inventor of the kid-friendly interface, which sits on top of a computer's operating system. His company, Sugar Labs, was spun off from OLPC in May. At the time of the announcement, Bender said Sugar … Read more

If you've gone video card shopping online lately, you may have noticed that you certain retailers are now asking you to click through to your shopping cart to see a price for Nvidia-based 3D graphics cards. As H Enthusiast reported earlier this week, that newly inconvenient shopping experience is part of a calculated effort by Nvidia to regulate the advertised pricing of its 3D cards.

The gist is that Nvidia is conducting a test run of this pricing scheme, and if online retailers like NewEgg, Buy.com, and others don't comply, they will face a series of penalties, … Read more

Good news for green tech: The fastest supercomputer in the world is also one of the most energy efficient. That's according to the Top500 supercomputers list, to be released Wednesday at the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany.

Twice yearly, the list measures the 500 most powerful computer systems available commercially. This year, the 31st time the list has been put together, the honor of top supercomputer goes to IBM's Roadrunner, which is housed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. It's the first system to reach 1.026 petaflops (1 petaflop … Read more

Acer's been on a roll lately, and Friday it rewarded its top two executives.

The world's No. 3 PC maker appointed Acer Chairman J.T. Wang to CEO of Acer Group, which includes Acer affiliates, and Acer Presdient Gianfranco Lanci to CEO of Acer. Wang will also remain company chairman.

In the release regarding the promotions, Acer noted that since the two took over as chairman and president, respectively, in 2005, Acer's revenue has increased from $9.7 billion to $14.1 billion in 2007.

Taiwan-based Acer was the fastest growing PC company in the world in … Read more