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For these bucks you can be darn sure Oakley didn’t skimp on the optics, which are of the high-impact, 100%-UV-filtering variety.

Oakley says the 1GB model holds 280 songs, and shuffling from one track to the next is merely a matter of tapping the soft buttons this way and that.

Not so easy when you’re fingers are staying warm in gloves, but then again, at these prices, you’ve probably got a personal valet riding shotgun to wipe your running nose and change tracks for you.

— Joe Hutsko

www.msnbc.msn.com

"There is an ever-increasing demand for higher graphic processing power and crisper graphics for entertainment and applications alike," said David Cummings, director of marketing for AMD's Graphics Products Group, in a statement.

"Our answer to that demand is the X2300 GPU. This GPU utilizes patented technology to increase processing power and provide the user with smooth, realistic hi-resolution graphics."

The new laptop will also offer something Asus is calling Splendid Video Intelligence Technology that allows the A8Jr to integrate different multimedia data sources in order to reduce noise and conversion rate for a sharper display and better contrast when running video applications.

Asus says the notebooks will all come with high-definition support capability, allowing for HD video playback on the go, as well as built-in WLAN 802.11 a/b/g, a 14.1-inch widescreen display, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR—a pumped up data rate that transmits three times faster than the standard Bluetooth—and 5 USB ports, a S-video TV-out port, and express card slots for data transfer and storage options.

A representative for Asus said that pricing for the A8Jr will be around $1249, depending on configuration. The company expects the laptop to start shipping in late February.

Bryan Gardiner - ExtremeTech

Google said it would distribute advertising alongside videos from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG - news) over its AdSense online ad system to Web site publishers in a four-week test now underway.

"Over the past few months, we have run tests to figure out how we work with our partners and advertisers to combine high quality video content with ads and then distribute them (over) the Google AdSense network," Google said in statement.

The test with the two music labels follows an earlier public trial of Google's video advertising system with Viacom's (NYSE:VIA - news) MTV Networks, which provided music videos to run on a select number of Web sites running Google ads.

As part of the test, advertisements would be billed on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) model, the traditional billing method for mass market advertising as opposed to the pay-per-click billing model Google popularized with text ads.

Google has been pushing ahead in recent months to expand beyond its hugely successful text-advertising system into new advertising formats including video, radio and mobile phones.

As a example, Warner Music has defined multiple video channels along themes like "rock music" or featuring the "Divas of Pop Music." A Web site owner can select a video channel and embed it on a section of the site dedicated to running Google AdSense ads. Visitors then can click to watch ad-supported videos within the video channel on sites running the ads.

The Google advertising system splits the resulting revenue three ways to the video content owner, the Web site publisher and Google. The exact revenue splits were not disclosed.

Mountain View, California-based Google said in a statement on its AdSense customer blog that only a limited number of Web site publishers had been asked to participate.

"Over the next few weeks we'll be testing AdSense video distribution and sponsorship with a small group of publishers," AdSense product manager Christian Oestlien said in his blog post.

Sony BMG is a joint venture of Japan's Sony Corp. (6758.T) and Germany's Bertelsmann (BERT.UL).

Shares of Google fell 1.8 percent to close at $480.84 on Nasdaq.

Eric Auchard
www.reuters.com

Intel, trying to reverse plunging profits and market-share losses to archrival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., will officially endorse Sun's Solaris operating system in return.

Analysts said Intel's backing will be crucial in Sun's effort to gain more widespread adoption of its servers and software.

And Sun's embrace of Intel chips marks a timely design win for Intel, whose processors were shunted aside by Sun several years ago in favor of chips from AMD.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, has lost about 5 percent of the overall chip market to AMD over the past year, with AMD posting dramatic gains in the high-margin markets for servers and laptop computers that Intel once enjoyed nearly alone.

But Intel has revamped its product line with a new chip design to boost performance while giving off less heat, and analysts said deals like the one with Sun reflect a growing demand for Intel's new offerings.

"We see '07 as the year of Intel — everything is working in their favor now," said Larry Cao, a semiconductor equity analyst with Morningstar. "They're back on top, their product line is strong, and they're gaining customers. This is one example — they finally penetrated this one account that was purely AMD. That's a major score for them."

The CEOs from both companies, Jonathan Schwartz with Sun and Paul Otellini with Intel, jointly announced the deal in San Francisco.

Both executives stressed the collaborative nature of the partnership and said the deal is about expanding market opportunities in areas where both companies have been weak.

Otellini said the two companies agreed to try to find common ground while negotiating the terms of the new partnership.

"This is not just a commercial endeavor," Otellini said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This is a deep, cooperative effort. If you look at both companies, they both have a strong legacy of technology innovation. We're now able to do that in a collaborative fashion."

The deal represents a dramatic about-face for Sun, which several years ago began relying exclusively on AMD to provide the processors for servers based on the popular x86 design. Intel used to provide chips to Sun for that type of server, but Sun phased them out over concern about their high energy consumption.

Under the new deal, Intel will again make chips for Sun for servers based on the x86 design, though Sun will continue to use AMD products as well.

Analysts said the competition is likely to bring down Sun's prices and help the company broaden its customer base.

"Sun's a company that has a strong will and oftentimes blazes its own trail," said Crawford Del Prete, a senior vice president with market research firm IDC. "This is a way for Sun to accomplish a number of things with one stroke. It broadens the product line, it attracts customers loyal to the Intel product line, and it also increases adoption of Solaris. Intel's backing is important to win the confidence of customers."

AMD said in a statement that Sun remains a "strong, strategic partner" and that the deal ultimately serves the market demand for choice by driving innovation, differentiation between competing products and increased value to customers.

Though AMD has been gaining share at Intel's expense, Intel has slashed prices and the pressure appears to have taken a toll on AMD.

AMD is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday and has warned investors that plunging processor prices would "substantially" reduce operating income for the quarter.

Investors had a muted reaction to the news of the Sun-Intel partnership.

Intel's shares were down 3 cents to close at $20.79 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, while Sun shares slipped 2 cents to $5.75 on the Nasdaq.

Analysts said part of the ho-hum reaction was because of Sun's relatively small size in the global server market.

Sun is ranked fourth in terms of worldwide server sales revenue, commanding about 10 percent of the market behind larger rivals Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Dell Inc., according to data from Gartner Inc.

However, analysts said the deal was nonetheless an important milestone in the semiconductor and server industries that could help both companies prosper.

Schwartz, the Sun CEO, said the partnership with Intel was about reaching developers who build applications on Intel microprocessors and in turn driving sales for Sun.

He also stressed the long-term technology development aspect of the deal, which he said will lead to innovations for both companies far out into the future.

"This is a tectonic shift in the marketplace," Schwartz told the AP. "This really is a landmark relationship that's about growing the market and not simply the customer-supplier relationship. This really does change the face of the industry."

JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer

percent at the current set of retail prices, iSuppli Corp. said in an analysis of presumed component and manufacturing costs.

The 4-gigabyte version of the iPhone, with a retail price of $499, will cost Apple $245.83 to make, iSuppli estimated. The 8-gigabyte version, priced at $599, will cost Apple $280.83.

"With a 50 percent gross margin, Apple is setting itself up for aggressive price declines going forward," said Jagdish Rebello, a director and principal analyst with iSuppli.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Since Apple will face stiff competition in the cell phone market, the company may need to cut into its margins to reduce pricing in the future, he said.

The Apple iPhone, which was announced by CEO
Steve Jobs last week, will be available starting in June exclusively through AT&T's Cingular Wireless. Apple has said it hopes to sell 10 million units in 2008, or about 1 percent of the market.

That goal "seems attainable," Rebello said.

www.ap.org

As a media player, the N800 handles MP3 and Windows Media files and other common audio and video formats, displaying images on a 4.1-inch color screen and playing audio through built-in stereo speakers or a headphone. Content can be loaded from SD or MMC memory cards, streamed from the Web or downloaded through a U.S.B. connection from another computer. The tablet uses Wi-Fi networking, but it can also connect to a compatible Nokia phone via Bluetooth and use it as a wireless modem.

The tablet, available from retailers and www.nokiausa.com for $400, has an on-screen keyboard. It will recognize text written with a stylus, which can also be used for doodling.

ivan berger
nytimes.com

Evidence Offered

During a one-day trial that ended Tuesday, prosecutors showed how at least 50,000 computers were infected by the two defendants, who are 20 and 28 years old. Police have not released their names. The pair used a malicious program called "Toxbot," a worm that can be used to gain remote control of a computer and log keystrokes, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also charge that the defendants threatened an advertising software maker, 180Solutions, now renamed Zango, with a denial-of-service attack after a dispute over payment. Zango settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in November for $3 million after concern that distributors of its software were installing it on peoples' computers without their consent, often by exploiting vulnerabilities in operating systems or Web browsers.

Prosecutors also allege the pair were involved in phishing schemes, where fraudulent Web sites are constructed to harvest personal information such as bank-account or credit-card details. The two used a Trojan horse called "Wayphisher", which on an infected machine can redirect a Web site request from a legitimate bank site to a phishing site.
Fines, Jail Sought

Prosecutors want a three-year sentence for the 20-year-old and two years for the 28-year-old and and each to pay $38,000 to the Dutch government, Leppens said. A judge will return a verdict in the case on January 30.

Four others involved in the ring who are facing lesser charges will go to trial later this year, Leppens said.

The various schemes caused at least $75,000 in losses to victims, through online purchases and other actions, Leppens said.

Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
pcworld.com

While Bianco has yet to make a landmark discovery, he savors the rush of teetering on the cutting edge of research.

Never before have amateur astronomers had so much unfettered access to celestial data once available only to scientists with huge telescopes. In the latest frontier of astronomy, professionals are increasingly enlisting the aid of novices with personal computers to help pore through images and data — all in pursuit of the next great breakthrough.

"We're in the golden age of astronomy," said Bianco, who keeps his day job as a political science professor at Indiana University.

Thanks to technology, novices are effectively turning from lonely skywatchers to research assistants. Even before the rise of virtual astronomy, amateurs did everything from tracking asteroids to detecting supernova explosions to eyeing new comets.

In 1995, neophyte stargazer Thomas Bopp gained fame for co-discovering what would be known as Comet Hale-Bopp. Two years ago, in what was billed as the first such find by an amateur in 65 years, Jay McNeil of Kentucky took a picture of a new nebula — an illuminated cloud of gas and dust lit by what is believed to be a newborn star.

Since the late 1990s, virtual astronomy has boomed. One of the earliest online citizen scientist projects was SETI(at)home, which distributed software that created a virtual supercomputer by harnessing idle, Web-connected PCs to search for alien radio transmissions.

While the SETI project hums in the background as a screen saver, the newer efforts require more human thought.

Bianco belongs to an Internet project called Systemic, which boasts 750 amateur planet hunters. Astronomers have already discovered more than 200 planets in far-off solar systems using traditional methods, yet there are likely more out there.

Participants download software and rifle through data that measure the tiny gravitational wobble in a star's motions in search planets that orbit stars other than our sun. Users also try to decode simulated data of planetary systems invented by the project managers — a task that will help the professionals better understand real extrasolar planets.

To participate, users select a star — real or simulated — and adjust other variables such a planet's mass and orbital period by moving a slider back and forth on the screen. The goal is to design a planetary system that best fits the data and then publish the answer online.

So far, online users have pinpointed hundreds of potential candidates, but only about five might actually be real, said Systemic project head Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"It's not an aimless game," he said.

Although the Systemic Web site provides the search tools, it doesn't promote any of the discoveries, Laughlin said. Amateurs who want to publicize their find need to look for another outlet, such as a scientific journal to get credit.

Laughlin is no stranger to Web-based astronomy. He helped start another project in which amateurs point their telescopes at potential extrasolar planetary systems and look at dimming starlight to learn about a planet's size and composition. Unlike Systemic, users have to buy expensive equipment — including telescopes and cameras — to participate.

Before Internet-based astronomy, it took a long time for novices to report their discoveries. High-speed, always-on Internet access has blurred the line between the professionals and amateurs, said Terry Mann, president of the Astronomical League, made up of over 240 U.S. amateur astronomy clubs.

Last year, Mann signed up to analyze a repository of online images of the first-ever microscopic grains of star dust brought back to Earth by a
NASA spacecraft.

The work is painstaking. Mann and her fellow 25,000 volunteers eye hundreds of thousands of digital images in search of minuscule carrot-shaped trails left by the capture of star dust, believed to be the leftovers from stellar explosions.

Mann has submitted 40 possible examples of star dust in the images. If correct, amateurs can get their names published in scientific papers written by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, which manages the Stardust(at)home project.

"Amateurs can do real science. We can actually help," Mann said.

Andrew Westphal, associate director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley, praised amateurs — it would probably take his whole life to find all the dust sprinklings, he said.

"It's stunning how good they are. I think they're better at this than we are," Westphal said.

The Internet has also benefited professional astronomers, who often have to fight for scarce telescope time at major research observatories.

Since 2001, the National Science Foundation has funded a $10 million project to create a "national virtual observatory" that compiles data from ground and space-based telescopes — including dazzling images from the
Hubble Space Telescope and X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory. The project, which is still under development, is primarily used by professionals who want to go to one source to mine archival images. High school and college students are increasingly tapping into the Web site as well, said project manager Robert Hanisch of the Space Telescope Science Institute.

As far as amateur astronomer Bianco is concerned, the more people teasing out the mysteries of the cosmos, the better.

"It's going to take some time and collective effort to find what's out there," he said.

ALICIA CHANG
www.ap.org