Daily News Brief: Phenom Bug Discovered

Phenom Bug Foils Performance

Another hole's been uncovered in AMD's already leaky ship, this time in the form of a performance hampering bug. All quad-core revisions and clockspeeds are affected by the erratum bug, including the recently unveiled Phenom 9500 and 9600. The bug involves the L3 cache and can cause systems to hang, and though AMD's working on a fix, it could degrade performance by as much as 10%. Tech Report has the full scoop.

Da Vinci Gets Digital Treatment

After centuries of deteriorations and touchups, Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine lacked much of the luster it once held. But coming to the rescue is French inventor and engineer Pascal Cotte, who has uncovered nuances in hues and contours with a multi-spectral camera that burrows through layers. He claims the 240-megapixel scans are able to reveal what the painting likely looked like in its original form back over 500 years ago.

Vista SP1 to Shiver Pirates' Timbers!

Microsoft is gearing up to release Vista's first Service Pack, and along with the performance and security enhancements, Microsoft will also bundle in a few counter-piracy measures. No longer will users be able to extend the 30 day activation grace period up to a full year, nor will the OEM BIOS exploit continue to work.

France Frowns at EBay

Last week we reported Tiffany and Co. planned to sue eBay on the basis of contributory infringement over the amount of fake items being sold as genuine, and similar complaints are now coming from France. France's regulatory authority, Council of Sales, contends that eBay's French site should be held to the same standards as France's auction houses, which require a special permit. EBay counters that they're just an intermediary a not a traditional auction house, further citing the legal action as "totally unjust."

Apple Gives Away Free iPods to Wildfire Victims

Many lives were turned topsy-turvy in the recent wildfires that blazed through southern California, and while Apple can't bring their homes back, they can bring a smile to over 100 students in a California school district this holiday season. They're doing it by giving away free iPods to students who lost their home, and they're doing it quietly, refusing to comment on the story. Very classy Apple, very classy.

Daily News Brief: MS Conspiracy Theory Exposed!

Microsoft Fueling HD Wars?

That's what Michael Bay believes, who directed the Transformers movie. Still peeved that Transformers only appears on HD-DVD and not Blu-ray, Micheal wrote that "Microsoft wants both formats to fail" in an attempt to move consumers toward digital downloads, and that MS is "handing out $100 million checks to studios" to push HD-DVD and confuse the market. Makes perfect sense too, because, well, if two formats manage to gain a foothold in the market, said formats will spontaneously combust, leaving digital downloads to rule over masses of confused movie watchers.

Nokia Offers Free Music for a Year

As part of their 'Comes With Music Program', Nokia announced they'll be giving away free music from "millions of artists[...], past, present, and future." To qualify, consumers need only purchase a Nokia device, making them eligible to download free music for a year, which they can keep forever. As of yet, it's unclear which record labels will participate, save for UMG, who is already on board.

iPhone Searches Dominate Google

Score one for technology and entertainment, which saw more Google searches in 2007 than any other category. And the fastest-rising search term? The iPhone, of course, which didn't exist a year prior. Also making the top 10 list are Webkinz, celebrity news site TMZ, and transformer toys, which held the 2, 3, and 4 spots respectively. See the rest here.

iPhone Dominates France

French mobile phone operator Orange reports they've sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days since it's November 29 launch. Meanwhile, T-Mobile in Germany said it sold 10,000 units on the first day, who yesterday won a lawsuit allowing them to lock iPhone customers into a two year contract. Orange remains the only Apple network partner to sell unlocked phones, which does so to comply with French law.

$222,000 RIAA Verdict Constitutional

After losing a copyright infringement suit brought forth by the RIAA to the tune of $222,000, Jammie Thomas appealed the verdict claiming the damages were in excess of actual damages the music labels might have incurred. But the U.S. Department of Justice didn't agree, dismissing Thomas' claims and stating that the Copyright Act serves both a "compensatory and a deterrent purpose." File sharers take note...

Shrinky Dink Chips

While most of us can remember using Shrinky Dinks to downsize Smurfs and He-Man characters, Michelle Khine recently found another use for them. Armed with a laser printer, a toaster oven, and Shrinky Dinks, the University of California Merced professor managed to make microfluidic devices, which are computer chips with plumbing typically fabricated in multimillion dollar labs. Read all about the process here.

Daily News Brief: USPS Warns Netflix Over Mailers

Netflix Mailers Cause Trouble

Apparently Netflix's pre-addressed mailers are costing the USPS big money in additional labor costs, to the tune of $41.9 million over the past two years, and another $61.5 million over the next couple. It's not that USPS workers have suddenly become incredibly feeble, but the mailers "sustain damage, jam equipment, and cause mis-sorts during automated processing," which could ultimately result in a $0.17 surcharge per DVD if Netflix refuses to redesign their mailers. Estimates have the surcharge cutting into 67% of Netflix's margin.

House Passes Online SAFE Act

In an overwhelmingly majority vote (409-2), the House of Representatives passed the SAFE act (Securing Adolescents From Exploitation), which requires anyone offering an open public Wi-Fi connection to report illegal images, including "obscene" cartoons and drawings, or be hit with a $300,000 fine. The Act isn't intended to target consumers with Wi-Fi access points at home, but some feel the bill was rushed too quickly to the floor and as a result left too much up to interpretation.

AMD RV635 Sports DisplayPort

AMD's had a rough time in the news as of late, but it's not all bad coming out of Santa Clara, as evidenced by HotHardware's look at the RV635.. The new card comes equipped with dual DisplayPorts, which looks to beat nVidia to market with the new port. DisplayPort was designed specifically for computers, and is expected to co-exist with HDMI, which targets living room consumer electronics.

University Incorporates Video Games into Classrooms

Doug Thomas, associate professor at the University of California's Annenberg School for Communication, is busy developing a game for students aged 10-12 with the goal of teaching ideas and skills not easily taught through textbooks. His game 'Modern Prometheus' attempts to teach ethical decision making by casting students into the role of Dr. Frankenstein's assistant, which at one point makes students decide whether or not to steal body parts from a cemetery to cure the town's plague. The challenge for Thomas will be convincing teachers to incorporate video games into the curriculum, like we got to do as youngster with Oregon Trail.

Identity Thieves Seek Plea

Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, and her boyfriend Edward Anderton, 25, are accused of stealing the identities of neighbors in their upscale building, making away with $100,000 this year alone. The money was used to fund overseas vacations to locales that included Paris and London, and a jaunt to Hawaii. Police seized from their $3,000/month apartment a laptop with travel photos, fake driver's licenses, credit cards, and an industrial machine used to make ID cards. The couple will seek to make a plea bargain as charges continue to pile up.

Symantec Slips Up

Customers running both Solid Oak Software's CyberSitter filtering program and Norton AntiVirus saw their internet connection turned off when the latter identified the former as a virus. The erroneous tag affected schools, libraries, and personal accounts, possibly accounting for tens of thousands of individuals. The issue is now fixed, but according to Brian Milburn, president of Solid Oak Software, this is the third time this year Norton has adversely affected CyberSitter customers, prompting him to proclaim "Norton products are worse than any virus [he] can think of."

Daily News Brief: Phenom Bug Discovered

Phenom Bug Foils Performance

Another hole's been uncovered in AMD's already leaky ship, this time in the form of a performance hampering bug. All quad-core revisions and clockspeeds are affected by the erratum bug, including the recently unveiled Phenom 9500 and 9600. The bug involves the L3 cache and can cause systems to hang, and though AMD's working on a fix, it could degrade performance by as much as 10%. Tech Report has the full scoop.

Da Vinci Gets Digital Treatment

After centuries of deteriorations and touchups, Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine lacked much of the luster it once held. But coming to the rescue is French inventor and engineer Pascal Cotte, who has uncovered nuances in hues and contours with a multi-spectral camera that burrows through layers. He claims the 240-megapixel scans are able to reveal what the painting likely looked like in its original form back over 500 years ago.

Vista SP1 to Shiver Pirates' Timbers!

Microsoft is gearing up to release Vista's first Service Pack, and along with the performance and security enhancements, Microsoft will also bundle in a few counter-piracy measures. No longer will users be able to extend the 30 day activation grace period up to a full year, nor will the OEM BIOS exploit continue to work.

France Frowns at EBay

Last week we reported Tiffany and Co. planned to sue eBay on the basis of contributory infringement over the amount of fake items being sold as genuine, and similar complaints are now coming from France. France's regulatory authority, Council of Sales, contends that eBay's French site should be held to the same standards as France's auction houses, which require a special permit. EBay counters that they're just an intermediary a not a traditional auction house, further citing the legal action as "totally unjust."

Apple Gives Away Free iPods to Wildfire Victims

Many lives were turned topsy-turvy in the recent wildfires that blazed through southern California, and while Apple can't bring their homes back, they can bring a smile to over 100 students in a California school district this holiday season. They're doing it by giving away free iPods to students who lost their home, and they're doing it quietly, refusing to comment on the story. Very classy Apple, very classy.

Daily News Brief: Wal-Mart's One Day Blu-ray Bonanza!

Wal-Mart Giving Away Blu-ray Movies

For those that passed up on the sub-$100 Toshiba HD-DVD player Wal-Mart recented offered as a one day sale, you'll have another chance to jump on the high-definition train, if you're willing to ride the Blu-ray express. This Saturday, Wal-Mart's giving away 10 free Blu-ray movies when you purchase an 80GB Playstation 3. Pile on the 5 additional movies Sony gives away via mail-in-rebate, and that brings the tally to 15 titles. Suddenly, $499 for a console doesn't seem all that nauseating.

Wii Shortage Continues

It's been a year since the Nintendo Wii debuted, and the console is still hard to come by in some regions. Some have speculated it's an intentional shortage to drive up demand, but Nintendo's now throwing 1.8 million units into the market place every month. Even still, Nintendo says to expect shortages this holiday shopping season, with the bulk of the consoles going to Japan and Europe.

Unlock Your DNA Online

Anne Wojcicki, who is married to Google's co-founder Sergey Brin, has co-founded a new site that promises to help surfers learn more about their genetic make-up. For $999, 23andMe.com will analyze a customer's DNA for some 600,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms, which scientists have linked to diseases and certain traits. But at least one researcher warns that "a lot of the genetic results are early, weak and preliminary," in addition to the obvious privacy concerns.

U.S. Entrenched in Costly Internet Gambling Dispute

The U.S. made international waves when it withdrew from a World Trade Organization accord recognizing internet gambling as a legal venture. Unhappy with the U.S.'s stance, Antigua's leading the charge in seeking sanctions that, combined with other countries, could total $100 billion or more. And in a twist, Antigua hinted they could become a harbor for pirated movies and music as a means of collecting their $3.4 billion portion of the sanction pie.

Seen an 80GB Zune?

If so, count yourself in the minority. While Microsoft's second generation 4GB and 8GB Zunes are easy to come by, the 80GB version is next to impossible to find in stock. Microsoft said they prioritized manufacturing the smaller versions first, and that 80GB models should start trickling back into the market within the next two weeks, well before Christmas shopping hits last-minute status.

Will Smith was Right!

Parents just don't understand, especially when it comes to video games. Weekly Reader Reasearch found that 60% of children surveyed expect to either receive a game they did not want, or one for the wrong gaming console. How totally bogus! Of course, this just begs for a counter -survey, in which parents would be asked if they expect good gifts from their kids this Christmas, or another tie to add to the collection.