New DVD Stores Data for 1,000 Years.
Friday, November 20, 2009

Among new research and data revealing recordable DVDs are more unreliable and unpredictable than originally thought, often failing in as few as two years, a new 1,000 year DVD made of high tech, diamond-hard stone promises to preserve irreplaceable digital files for the ages. The Cranberry DiamonDisc was designed by a team of scientists to store digital photos, movies, music, documents, and ledgers for 1,000 years or more. Unlike conventional recordable DVDs and CDs, the Cranberry DiamonDisc has no adhesive layers, dye layer or reflective layer to deteriorate - thereby avoiding the "data rot" that quickly corrodes all recordable DVDs. A high-intensity laser physically etches the information into the diamond-like surface of our synthetic stone disc. No other layer is needed. The transparent Cranberry DiamonDisc can withstand prolonged temperatures extending up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit as well as UV rays that would destroy conventional DVD disks, Cranberry claims. Researchers at Millenniata (Cranberry got an exclusive license of the technology for the consumer market) have tested the Cranberry Disc using the ECMA379 temperature and humidity (85°C / 85% RH) testing (effects of temperature and relative humidity ) as a standard to develop the most rigorous testing possible. They have combined temperature and humidity (85°C / 85% RH) tests with exposure to the full spectrum of natural light. The Cranberry Disc is the only survivor after this rigorous testing, the company claims. "Considering the combination of the Cranberry Disc's test results and its rock-like data layer, it is reasonable to conclude that the Cranberry Disc has a greater longevity and durability than other competitors media claim a 300-year shelf life," the company said. The data format is the same as any other DVD, meaning that the Cranberry DiamonDisc is fully backwards-compatible and can be read by any DVD player in any computer. Both the National Archives and the Library of Congress have alerted consumers that they shouldn't rely on home-burned DVDs to last much beyond two to five years. "Storage media such as compact discs and DVDs that were thought to last don't - they often fail within a few years," cautions the Library of Congress. David McInnis, founder of Cranberry DiamonDisc claims that has found the answer to the maladies of the digital DVD age in the low-tech Stone Age. Indeed, a dedicated group of professors at Brigham Young University developed and tested the "stone-carved" technology that McInnis licensed and is now available exclusively to consumers as the Cranberry DiamonDisc. "The Cranberry DiamonDisc is playable on most regular DVD drives today and will last as far into the future as we can imagine," McInnis says. But how can you write data on a Cranberry DiamonDisc? Specialized hardware is required to etch the diamond-like surface of a Cranberry DiamonDisc. However, the cost of this hardware puts it out of the reach of most consumers. A Cranberry Disc Writer plus 150 Blank Cranberry Discs are available for $4,995, while a single 4.7GB disc costs $34.95. For these reasons, Cranberry can etch consumers' DiamonDisc for them. After purchasing a Cranberry DiamonDisc online, consumers can upload their files through the secure online Cranberry File Uploader or send them to Cranberry by mail. Cranberry will etch the files onto the DiamonDisc and mails it back to to them. Find out more here.

Japanese Firms Prototype Battery-less Remote Control.
Thursday, November 19, 2009

Japanese electronics firms NEC Electronics Corp and Soundpower Corp announced November 17, that the comapanies have prototyped a remote control that does not require any batteries. Intended for home electric appliances, the remote control was realized by combining a vibration-based power generation device developed by Soundpower with NEC Electronics' microcomputer supporting RF remote controls that use radio waves with a frequency band ranging from several tens of MHz to several GHz to transmit and receive data and a power supply control technology that drives electronic circuits with a small amount of electricity. Specifically, electricity is generated by utilizing the weak vibration caused by pressing a button on the remote control. The electronic circuits of the remote control are driven by the electricity to turn on and off a TV set, adjust the sound volume and switch channels. NEC Electronics and Soundpower started the joint development of the remote control in December 2006. According to the comapnies, they plan its adoption by consumer-electronics makers sometime in 2011. The new remote control will be exhibited at Embedded Technology 2009, a trade show that will take place from Nov 18, thru 20, 2009, in Yokohama City, Japan.

The Mortician 3D -  Future Blockbuster Film Production Gets Wired with Markertek !
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Harahan, LA - Markertek is the cutting edge technology supply leader for the film making and field production industry. We just rushed a huge order of connectivity products to the film set of The Mortician 3D that is to begin filming later this month in Harahan, Louisiana. The Mortician 3D is a redemption tale where kindness triumphs over cruelty and falls within the genres of urban noir, contemporary fairytale and psychological thriller. Starring Rap artist Method Man, last seen in The Wackness, as the mortician, he headlines along with Angelic Zambrana (Precious). Actors Tom Hardy (Bronson) and Edward Furlong (American History X) are casted as well. The film is set in the ghetto nightmare of a decaying metropolis and is based around one man's struggle through the violence and corruption of a dying city. The Mortician processes corpses with a steely regard and as a borderline autistic, he is alienated. Through his emotionless and unsympathetic actions he spreads his coldness to all he encounters. The Mortician’s attention is pricked by the tattoo of Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ on the body of a murdered young woman, Jenny. A fleeting recognition triggers a sequence of haunting dreams from his childhood. He discovers a scared child, Kane, fleeing the morgue. The danger that confronts them forces the Mortician to awake from his icy state as he is compelled to forge real emotional links with both the living and the dead. The "gritty, urban drama" was written and is being directed by Gareth Maxwell Roberts (Kill Kill Faster Faster), and is expected to be released in mid to late 2010. Markertek continues to proudly assist the film industry by providing the necessary field connectivity equipment as well as all the other gear required to take one man's idea and put it up on the silver screen for the world to experience!

Sony Unveils Plans to Strengthen PC and Digital Imaging Business.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Japan's Sony Corporation this week announced a series of organizational changes designed to strengthen its PC and digital imaging businesses. Effective as of April 1, 2010, Sony will transfer certain PC-related operations, including design operations, carried out by Sony EMCS Corporation Nagano TEC (Azumino City, Nagano Prefecture) into the VAIO Business Group, the headquarter function of Sony's PC business. Concurrently, the VAIO Business Group will be relocated to the "Nagano Business Center" of Sony, which will be newly located on the premises of Sony EMCS Corporation Nagano TEC. Following this move, Sony EMCS Corporation Nagano TEC, which is currently conducting design, manufacturing and related operations for Sony's PC business, will be dedicated solely to manufacturing operations. By centralizing all related operations of product planning, design and manufacturing for Sony's PC business at one site, Sony aims to strengthen collaboration between each operation and establish a unified business structure that further enhances efficiency and accelerates business growth. Operations relating to Sony's "alpha" digital SLR business, which have been located at Sony's Shin-Osaka Business Center in Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, will move to Sony's Shinagawa Technology Center (Minato-ku, Tokyo). This move is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2010. It is designed to maximize synergies with other digital imaging business groups (including video cameras and digital still cameras) in areas such as technological and product development, with the aim of further reinforcing Sony's "alpha" business and optimizing operations across Sony's digital imaging business.

FCC Announces Staff Change.
Monday, November 16, 2009

The Federal Communications Commission's Commissioner Michael J. Copps announced today that journalist Joshua Cinelli will join his office as Advisor on Media Issues. “I am so pleased to have someone of Joshua’s caliber, talent and deep sense of commitment to serve as my advisor on media issues. He arrives at a critical time for the future of our country’s media policy. He and I are both convinced that the opportunity for media reform is now. We have new leadership and a new sense of direction at the Commission plus a window of opportunity to address the gamut of pressing media issues, including too much media industry consolidation, too little diversity, and too many years of lax public interest oversight. In addition, I feel passionately about the need to confront the crisis facing broadcast journalism, with slashed news budgets jeopardizing the civic dialogue upon which our democracy relies. As a journalist who has worked in both traditional and ‘new’ media, Joshua is ideally suited to help craft innovative solutions to ensure that the interests of the American public are being served by all our media.” Mr. Cinelli has served most recently as news web editor at The New York Daily News. He has previous experience reporting for newspapers in Portland, Oregon, and New York City, and has done multimedia coverage for The Huffington Post. Cinelli also served as Legislative Director for a member of the Texas House of Representatives. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism— where he was awarded the Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger Scholarship, the Time Inc. Scholarship, and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Journalism. Mr. Cinelli replaces Jamila Bess Johnson, who has been on detail to Copps office as interim media adviser since the beginning of the year.

1080p HD Is Coming to YouTube.
Friday, November 13, 2009

According to video-sharing giant YouTube, support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is on its way. Starting next week, YouTube's HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source, up from the site's current maximum output of 720p. Spokesperson Chris Dale said engineers have been testing 1080p streams on the system and that the company is now not worried that there will be any infrastructure problems or higher costs for Google, YouTube's owner. "As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content. For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the full screen experience." The company also said that if users have already uploaded videos at 1080p, the video will be automatically re-encoded to playback at the highest quality. Videos uploaded from users will still have a 10-minute limit, although it is expected that the maximum uploaded file size will likely increase from the current limit of two gigabytes.

VESA Issues Mini DisplayPort Standard.
Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has issued its Mini DisplayPort (mDP) Connector Standard, defining the new, small connector that supports the full range of power, signaling and protocol capabilities defined in the DisplayPort Standard Version 1, Revision 1a. Originally developed by Apple for its new generation of portable PCs, Mini DisplayPort is much smaller than DVI (Digital Video Interface) or VGA connectors and enables full function display output on ultrathin notebooks and netbooks. Earlier this year, Apple agreed to license the mDP interface to VESA for inclusion in the DisplayPort standard. Mini DisplayPort meets the need for a smaller form factor connector for devices such as thin portable computers and add-in cards with multiple display interfaces. The mDP connector can be used as an alternative to the standard DisplayPort connector defined in Version 1, Rev. 1a. The mDP standard defines the mechanical dimensions of the mDP connector and the cable assemblies and adaptors that are supported. Devices using the mDP connector will meet all the electrical and protocol specifications required by DisplayPort 1.1a, and cable assemblies incorporating an mDP connector at either or both ends must meet the cable assembly electrical specifications required by the standard. VESA is finalizing DisplayPort 1.2, which incorporates mDP and doubles available bandwidth to 21.6 Gb/second. The increased bandwidth enables new capabilities such as multi-monitor support via a single output connector, higher resolutions, refresh rates and color depths, along with high performance 3D displays. The mDP standard can be downloaded from www.vesa.org or www.displayport.org

HP to Acquire 3Com for $2.7 Billion.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Palo Alto, California based Hewlett-Packard and network and IP solution provider, 3Com this week announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase 3Com, a provider of networking switching, routing and security solutions, at an enterprise value of approximately $2.7 billion. According to HP, the acquisition of 3Com will expand HP's Ethernet switching offerings, add routing solutions and significantly strengthen the company's position in China - one of the world's fastest-growing markets - via the H3C offerings. In addition, the combination will add a large research and development team in China that will drive the acceleration of innovations to HP's networking solutions. "Companies are looking for ways to break free from the business limitations imposed by a networking paradigm that has been dominated by a single vendor," said Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers and Networking, HP. "By acquiring 3Com, we are accelerating the execution of our Converged Infrastructure strategy and bringing disruptive change to the networking industry. By combining HP ProCurve offerings with 3Com's extensive set of solutions, we will enable customers to build a next-generation network infrastructure that supports customer needs from the edge of the network to the heart of the data center." The terms of the transaction have been approved by the HP and 3Com boards of directors, the companies said. Under the terms of the merger agreement, 3Com stockholders will receive $7.90 for each share of 3Com common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of 3Com's stockholders. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of calendar 2010.

Glass Supply Disruption not Expected to Spur LCD Price Hike.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A manufacturing interruption at a Corning Inc plant in Taiwan will reduce availability of glass used for making LCDs in Q4 -- but this will not drive up panel prices, according to iSuppli Corp. Corning, the world's leading maker of glass for LCD panel substrates, in late October announced that a power disruption at its facility in Taichung, Taiwan during the weekend of October 18-19 had impacted a portion of its production. The power disruption caused the shutdown of several of the facility's glass melting tanks. Since it will take time to repair the tanks and bring them back up to full operation -- possibly as long as two months -- glass supply will be impacted, especially in Taiwan. iSuppli expects Corning's supply of glass to Taiwanese LCD makers to fall short of expected levels by 5% to 10% in Q4. The shortfall mainly will impact fifth-generation and higher fabs, which are used to make panels for notebook PCs, desktop PC monitors and 32-inch for LCD-TVs. By the time Corning has restored full production at the Taichung facility, global glass supply will have fallen short of the expected level by <5% during Q4, iSuppli believes. If this supply disruption had occurred during a time when panel inventory was low and production was increasing, it could have caused LCD availability to become constrained and prices to rise. However, with prices declining due to seasonal and market conditions, this isn't expected to occur this time. "Many panel suppliers were hoping that a glass shortage would mitigate the downward pressure on LCD prices," said Sweta Dash, senior director, LCD research, for iSuppli. "However, there is no indication this is going to happen in late 2009." The large-sized LCD panel market has been in a state of oversupply since September due to a buildup of panel inventories, and sizable stockpiles of finished products among retailers, Dash observed. Meanwhile, with electronics OEMs already having concluded most of their panel purchases for the holiday season, LCD sales have begun to decelerate, as is the normal pattern in Q4. These factors have spurred a decrease in large-sized LCD panel pricing that is expected continue throughout the Q4. TV panel price reductions expected to persist in November, with a 3% decline, and in December, with another 3% decrease. "With the Corning production issue occurring amid a glut of supply and a decline in demand, average pricing for large-sized LCD panels will not rise in Q4, in fact is expected to decrease throughout the quarter," Dash said.

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