1. Beamforming your data: how WiGig will offer 7Gbps speeds
The Wireless Gigabit Alliance recently announced that it has published the certification-ready 1.1 specification of its wireless system, and it includes some new capabilities, like a framework for video connectors. But given that even 5GHz WiFi is notorious for spotty reception mere feet from the offending wireless router, how will WiGig, which uses an incredible 60GHz frequency, ever manage to transmit information to devices that aren't literally pressed up against the router?
First, a quick rundown of what WiGig is. WiGig is a specification for hardware that uses 60GHz frequencies to transmit up to 7 gigabits of data per second over the air; for comparison, 802.11n WiFi tops out at a few hundred megabits per second. In other words, a download of an HD episode of Archer on WiGig would take mere seconds, even without perfect reception. The system has been in development for some years now. The WiGig Alliance recently pegged the launch of capable devices for the first half of 2012.
2. Judge rules "locker" site is not direct copyright infringer
A federal judge in Miami has dismissed direct copyright infringement charges against Hotfile, a popular online "locker" service that the major Hollywood studios allege is responsible for massive copyright infringement. But he allowed the case to proceed on charges that Hotfile has induced and profited from the infringing activities of its users. The 9-page opinion, first reported by the Hollywood, Esq. blog, provides early clues about how Judge Adalberto Jordan views the defendants, Hotfile and its alleged owner Anton Titov.
The case, which began in February, represents the latest front in the never-ending arms race between Hollywood studios and users seeking free copies of their movies. Hotfile is a "cyberlocker" site. Users upload files they wish to share with others and are rewarded financially if these files prove popular. The studios allege that the overwhelming majority of the files users upload to Hotfile are copyrighted content being distributed without the consent of copyright holders' like themselves.
3. Backlit keyboard expected to make triumphant return to MacBook Air
Apple's decision to remove the backlit keyboard from the current generation MacBook Air was met with disappointment, but backlighting could show up in the expected MacBook Air update. In addition to the introduction of Intel's Sandy Bridge processors and high-speed Thunderbolt ports, AppleInsider now claims that the new MacBook Airs will hail the return of the backlit keyboard, leaving the white MacBook as the lone notebook without the feature.
Apple used to differentiate its Pro and consumer notebook lines by offering backlit keyboards only in MacBook Pros, but the company began adding the feature to the MacBook Air when it was first introduced in early 2008. The feature disappeared, however, as part of the most recent update to the MacBook Air line in October of 2010,leaving many MacBook Air loyalists in the dark. Literally.
According to AppleInsider's sources, Apple plans to add keyboard backlights back to both its 11.6" and 13.3" MacBook Air models—the decision to remove them was made for unknown reasons. The only further detail is AppleInsider's claim that the introduction of Lion could be pushed to next week due to last-minute security issues, though we remain somewhat skeptical on this point. (Lion and the Sandy Bridge MacBook Airs have long been expected to launch side by side, and most of the rumors continue to point to this Thursday.)
In related news, 9 to 5 Mac supposedly got a hold of part numbers for not only new MacBook Airs, but also new Mac Pros that could launch with the other products this (or next) week. The part numbers indicate that Apple will release three Mac Pro models with one Mac Pro Server in addition to the four new MacBook Air models (two 11.6" and two 13.3") we've been anticipating. The Mac Pros are rumored to sport a new, rackmountable enclosure and have Thunderbolt support.
4. 4 Amazing Technology Waves That Will Change Your Life
Last week, Facebook launched its video chat. Saying this was going to be an "awesome" announcement and then showcasing basic video chat and group text chat was, and I'm being kind, disappointing. Still, Facebook does have something amazing here -- I just don't think it's worked out yet. But I do think this is the beginning of something big. Facebook made the same initial mistake with its video chat feature that virtually every company has made so far with similar services. It assumes that people want to see who they are talking to and be seen while they're talking.
5. iOS Jailbreakers Dig Up a Wormy Little Exploit
Zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple's iOS that are used to jailbreak iPhones and iPads could also be used to access confidential information, according to the German Federal Office for Information Security. The bug, exposed by a team of hackers at JailbreakMe.com, exploits vulnerabilities on PDFs. It allows users of an Apple device that runs on iOS version 4.3 through 4.3.3 to jailbreak an iPhone or iPad, meaning that user now has a new level of control over the device. Typically, this is done in order to install apps that haven't been given the Apple seal of approval.
6. What the World's Fastest Systems Say About Linux
I've been tracking the Top500 Supercomputer List with a particular eye on Linux for some time now, highlighting how Linux continues to power the majority of the world's fastest supercomputing systems. So it's no surprise to see continued dominance for Linux, but there are some interesting changes every six months when the new fastest supercomputer system list comes out. The most recent list, released last month, reinforces Linux leadership, as every single one of the top 10 fastest supercomputing systems in the world runs Linux.
7. Faster and stronger: next-generation memory tech outperforms flash
Flash memory is the dominant nonvolatile (retaining information when unpowered) memory thanks to its appearance in solid-state drives (SSDs) and USB flash drives. Despite its popularity, it has issues when feature sizes are scaled down to 30nm and below. In addition, flash has a finite number of write-erase cycles and slow write speeds (on the order of ms). Because of these shortcomings, researchers have been searching for a successor even as consumers snap up flash-based SSDs.
There are currently a variety of alternative technologies competing to replace silicon-based flash memory, such asphase-change RAM (PRAM), ferroelectric RAM (FERAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), and resistance-change RAM (RRAM). So far, though, these approaches fail to scale down to current process technologies well—either the switching mechanism or switching current perform poorly at the nanoscale. All of them, at least in their current state of development, also lack some commercially-important properties such as write-cycle endurance, long-term data retention, and fast switching speed. Fixing these issues will be a basic requirement for next-gen non-volatile memory.
Or, as an alternative, we might end up replacing this tech entirely. Researchers from Samsung and Sejong University in Korea have published a paper in Nature Materials that describes tanatalum oxide-based (TaOx) resistance-RAM (RRAM), which shows large improvements over current technology in nearly every respect.
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