Windows 8 to get self-healing ‘Storage Spaces’
Microsoft will introduce in Windows 8 what it calls Storage Spaces – a method of putting drives into a virtual pool from which self-healing virtual disks can be created, with some resemblance to ZFS features.
Details of these virtual disks – the aforementioned Storage Spaces – were described in a 4,400-word deep-dive blog post on Thursday, introduced by Microsoft Windows Division head, Steven Sinofsky, and written by a member of Redmond's Storage and File System team, Rajeev Nagar.
Storage Spaces are being added to the coming Windows 8 Beta and can be tried out in the Windows 8 Developer Preview. The basic idea is to provide automated data protection and resiliency against physical drive failures, and a storage volume that is actually larger than individual physical drives.
A group of physical disk drives have their capacity aggregated into a single named storage pool. Once allocated to a pool, the individual physical drives are owned by Windows, and are not available or addressable by Windows 8 users as file/folder locations on individual drives. Read more...
Chrome beta promises super-fast URL loads
Chrome 17 has hit beta with the promise Google's browser will start loading web pages before you've completed the URL.
The Chrome team blogged here that Chrome 17 loads some pages in the background and if the URL auto-completes then Chrome will begin pre-rendering the page.
Google software engineer Dominic Hamon wrote: "Pre-rendering reduces the time between when you hit Enter and when you see your fully loaded web page - in some cases the web page appears instantly." Read more...
Nokia gets another OS
Nokia has gone out and bought itself another operating system. It has snapped up the privately-held Norwegian company Smarterphone, which licenses a touchscreen featurephone OS, for an undisclosed sum. The company describes its eponymous platform (now up to version 3.0) as competing in the market of $25 to $75.
The business has been around since 1993, but operated under the name Kvaleberg until a year ago. It boasts a clutch of Asian licensees including Compal. Industry readers with long memories may remember OpenWave's V7 software; parts of that are included in the Smarterphone stack. Read more...
MediaTek lays groundwork for gigabit WLANs
Semiconductor company MediaTek has introduced a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that will be used to power wireless routers based on the 802.11ac wireless networking standard, which promises gigabit speeds, the company said on Monday.
The upcoming 802.11ac standard will offer higher speeds than what is currently possible using 802.11n thanks to the use of more spectrum and more advanced antenna technology.
MediaTek's RT6856 Wi-Fi SoC contains a 700 MHz MIPS CPU and two PCI Express interfaces to enable interoperability with 802.11ac Wi-Fi chips, which the company is also working on, MediaTek said. Read more...
Hard drive makers slash warranties
In a bid to save money or redirect funds to product development, Seagate and Western Digital are cutting hard drive warranties -- in some cases from five years to one.
Seagate's warranties on certain drives were shortened as of Dec. 31, and Western Digital followed suit on Jan. 2. All drives shipped prior to those dates will continue to carry the warranty term in effect at the shipping time.
First reported by The Register, a London-based technology website, the reductions mean some of the vendors' most popular PC drives will no longer carry three- or five-year warranties. Read more...
Acer to offer free cloud service, shows super-slim ultrabook
Acer kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday by previewing a free cloud service for storing images and other documents online, and showing a novel ultrabook that hides its I/O ports in a hidden pop-up section at the back.
The cloud service, called AcerCloud, will allow people to upload all their images, video, and documents to an online service hosted by Acer, and access them over the Web from any PC, mobile phone, or tablet running Windows or Android. That includes devices from other vendors.
The service will come free with all new consumer PCs from Acer and include "unlimited" storage, Acer officials said. It will be rolled out in North America and Greater China in the second quarter, and worldwide by the end of the year.
Acer has struggled this year with declining PC sales, and it hopes its emphasis on ultrabooks and the cloud service will help revive its fortunes. The AcerCloud will be "a strategic differentiator for Acer in the long term," Acer Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang said at the press event Read more...
iPhone built for China Telecom gains regulator approval
A version of the Apple's iPhone built for China Telecom's networks has received approval from a Chinese regulator, putting the iconic smartphone closer in the hands of customers of the mobile operator.
It's not clear if the device is the iPhone 4S, the latest version of the iPhone. The China Radio Management office said on its website that it gave approval to an Apple smartphone built for China Telecom's CDMA2000 network.
Apple's iPhone was originally only built for networks using the WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) standard. But last year, Apple launched an iPhone 4 compatible with CDMA-based networks, leading to speculation that the device would eventually be offered by China Telecom. Read more...
Lenovo gets a jump on Apple in smart TVs
Lenovo on Sunday announced its first smart TV that will recognize voice commands and run Android 4.0 applications, getting a jump over Apple's rumored pursuit of TVs with advanced features.
The K91 Smart TV will provide classic TV functionality, but also include voice control and console-quality gaming capabilities, said Nick Reynolds, director at Lenovo. Users will be able to operate TVs through voice commands instead of the traditional way of using buttons on remote controls.
"This allows the user to tell the remote control what they want to do, such as accessing thousands of TV apps available running on Android 4.0, or accessing LenovoCloud service to download new upgrades, and also access personal multimedia content or interact on social networks," Reynolds said. Read more...
Sweden’s Tobii shows ‘gaze control’ on Windows 8 PC
We've had gesture control with Microsoft Kinect. Now get ready for gaze control. Swedish firm Tobii is at the Consumer Electronics Show this week to promote the use of its eye tracking technology in PCs and tablets, though it could be a couple of years before it's ready for mainstream use.
The technology uses a sensor built into the monitor which tracks eye movements and translates them into actions on the screen. Instead of moving the cursor with a mouse or touchpad to click a link on the screen, looking at the link makes the cursor appear there immediately.
The technology is being used by market research firms to monitor consumer behavior and by the disabled, but it's too expensive today for widespread consumer use, said Tobii spokeswoman Sara Hylen. A system with a clip-on gaze sensor can cost $6,000, she said. It's also too bulky to embed in laptops, and Tobii needs developers to build the required applications for consumer PCs. Read more...