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With a long-awaited product launch today, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has a chance to prove it's not a one-hit wonder in chips for server systems. AMD's new microprocessor, code-named Barcelona, is crucial in the company's fight against Intel Corp. in providing calculating engines for the midsize machines that run Web sites and other key business programs. Intel had all but owned that market until April 2003, when AMD launched a chip called Opteron that steadily gained market share until Intel counterattacked in mid-2006 with faster products. The stiffer competition, and execution miscues, have stalled AMD's advances and contributed to a $600 million net loss in the second quarter. Barcelona, to be formally called the Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processor, is seen as important not only for an AMD turnaround, but also for server makers who want to play chip vendors off each other to get lower prices and higher performance. AMD has managed to squeeze four electronic brains on one piece of silicon; Intel, by contrast, packages two dual-processor chips together. In theory, the Barcelona design improves communication between processors. Earlier dual-processor Opterons already had advantages in fetching data from memory chips, and the new model has improved circuitry for complex chores called floating-point calculations. But the chip arrived later than the company had hoped, at a maximum frequency of 2.0 gigahertz, slower than initial expectations. Pricing is another reason computer makers root for AMD. When Opteron entered the market, Intel was selling Xeon models that listed for as much as $3,692 each. Now, the fastest model of its four-processor Xeon line lists for $2,301, a 38% reduction. Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research, estimates that the average selling price for both AMD and Intel server chips is now between $300 and $400, compared with more than $500 when the Opteron was introduced. The market has been completely altered by the presence of a second supplier, which now lists high-end Opterons for up to $2,149, won't have such lucrative models ready until the fourth quarter. A two-gigahertz model will list for $1,019, with low-end versions starting for as little as $209.
The Internet has done wonders making travel agents obsolete, but flight-booking sites still haven’t managed to replace the one-on-one human interaction that was once a keystone of vacation planning. This week, Orbitz may have found a way around that. The Chicago-based online travel company announced a service that lets users help each other. The Traveler Update system collects and posts user-generated tips on a range of topics, including security lines and the best places to get a snack, at more than 40 major U.S. airports. Consumers don’t have to buy tickets through Orbitz to use the service, and they can access the Traveler Update through the Orbitz site or its mobile web browser.
Apple sold its millionth iPhone on Sunday, just 74 days after the combination cell phone-iPod went on sale and less than a week after its price was cut by a third. Apple previously said it expected to hit the million-sold mark by the end of September. Monday's announcement sent Apple shares up $2.94, or 2.2% to $134.71. On Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs cut the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone from $599 to $399 and discontinued the $499 4-gigabyte version. The next day he apologized to those who had paid full price and offered $100 credits to early buyers. In a letter on the company's Web site, Jobs acknowledged that Apple disappointed some of its customers and said he had received hundreds of e-mails complaining about the price cut. Jobs added that "the technology road is bumpy," and there will always be people who pay top dollar for the latest electronics but get angry later when the price drops.
Talk of the government's pending auction of valuable wireless spectrum has focused largely on one intriguing newcomer to the bidding: Google. But another tech powerhouse has considered joining the bidding as well: Apple. Steve Jobs & Co. have studied the implications of joining the auction, which will be held Jan. 16. The winners will get rights to use the spectrum that analog TV broadcasters are handing back to the government in 2009, given their mandated move to digital television. Dubbed "beachfront property" by the Federal Communications Commission, it's the last swathe of wireless spectrum likely to become available that would have the attributes necessary for a new mainstream broadband network. Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today's cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather. At this point, says one of the sources, Apple is leaning against participating in the auction. It's not the money. With nearly $14 billion in cash, the company can clearly afford the $4.6 billion minimum bid required by the government, and could probably come up with the $9 billion that's expected to win a portion of the spectrum to be made available for a nationwide network. There will assuredly be stiff competition from phone companies and other potential bidders such as Google, DirecTV, and eBay, which owns Skype's Net calling software. Rather, the risk for Apple is in entering the generally low-margin, hardscrabble world of running a massive-scale network. Rather than focus all of Apple's entrepreneurial instincts on creating the next innovative gizmo, the company would be on the hook for the massive operational headaches that go with provisioning traffic, activating new subscribers, and fielding their angry calls when service glitches occur. As with Google, becoming a network operator would drag down Apple's margins—and could pose a cultural drag on an innovative company. And other than iTunes, Apple has not stood out for its Internet services. Only 1.7 million people pay the $99 annual fee for its .Mac service, disappointing given Apple's success in so many other areas. 
Microsoft said it may take decades to tackle software piracy in large emerging economies, despite some recent progress, and called on Asian governments to invest more in policing the practice. Countries like China and Vietnam in recent years to tackle software pirates, which cost the company billions of dollars each year. However, he said more needed to be done to police the problem. Most of the Asian countries have the laws, some of the regulations - they probably need tuning up - but the biggest weakness is, very few of them have made the necessary investment on the enforcement side. Microsoft has made progress in China, where the piracy rate has dropped to 82% this year from 94% four years ago, he said. The piracy rate is a measure of the level of pirated software in the country.
Skype users are under attack from a new worm that spreads through the peer-to-peer Internet phone application's chat feature. The attack begins when a user receives an instant message containing a link from someone in their contact list or an unknown Skype user. There are several versions of the chat messages, which are "cleverly written" to fool users. The link appears to contain a JPEG photo file, but if clicked causes the Windows run/save dialog box to appear, which asks whether the user wants to save or run a ".scr" file. The file is malicious software that can then access a user's PC via Skype's API (application programming interface). The malicious file has been named W32/Ramex.A. Users whose computers are infected with this virus will send a chat message to other Skype users asking them to click on a web link that can infect" their computers. 
Video games with online components bring in more than twice the revenue as those played offline. Developers who are not embracing online opportunities to a greater level are leaving money on the table. Games that use some degree of multiplayer capability also tend to make nearly 25% more revenue than those without. And games that allow users to play each other online bring in close to twice that of games which do not. The report looks at the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony, and the Wii from Nintendo, starting with their respective launches, through June 1, 2007. Analysis of some 219 retail titles and 187 downloadable games was conducted. Some 77% of Xbox 360 games incorporate online features in some manner, compared with 67% of PS3 titles, the researcher said. Yet 98% of the titles for the Wii, a console with lower-priced games geared toward more casual players, have no online functionality at all.
California and at least 11 other states are considering bills banning teens from using electronic equipment while driving, according to the American Automobile Association. At least 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed bans. Supporters say teen-specific regulations — which generally amend existing laws that apply to everyone, or add provisions to graduated licensing laws for young motorists — reduce driver distraction and save lives. Opponents say they're another example of government meddling into citizens' private behavior — and teaching students proper driving skills is a parent's duty, not the state's. California's bill could land on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk this week. Schwarzenegger, whose daughter turned 16 and began driving last year, hasn't indicated whether he'd sign it. The legislation, introduced by 
Several Internet users in the United States have been unplugged by their service provider because they download too much. Comcast has punished some transgressors by cutting off their Internet service, arguing that excessive downloaders hog Internet capacity and slow down the network for other customers. Comcast said the company was addressing "the problem of abusive activity that adversely impacts on everybody else's experience. A customer would have to download the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four feature films a day to trigger a disconnection warning. Comcast gives customers a month to fix problems or upgrade their service before they are disconnected. A recent report by the ABI market research company warned that the growth in demand for "bandwidth-hungry services such as HDTV and online gaming is leading to a critical lack of capacity" in US cable operators' networks. 
Having a huge network of online buddies does not mean you have any more close friends than the rest of us, a British researcher said. Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are changing the nature of how people connect by making it easy to collect hundreds of friends and acquaintances online. The researchers focused on Facebook and MySpace, two of the most popular sites where millions of people express themselves online with personal photographs, musings and other content while adding "friends" to their network. A study asking people a series of questions about their attitudes toward friendships and found 90% of individuals said it was imperative to know somebody face-to-face to form the tightest bonds. The key it seems is face-to-face interaction where people can interpret social clues such as laughs and smiles that help determine if others are friends to be counted on.
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