Mike Slocombe

Atom Chip Corporation Reveal Ultra Fast 6.8GHz Laptop – Vapourware?
UPDATE – Thanks for the number of people who have written to us about this one, lead by Matt Lacey.
When originally checking the background for the story, we looked at the CES site finding AtomChip had a stand at CES _but_ that they were listed as a CES Innovations 2005 Awards Honorees.
The AtomChip.com domain is registered to Shimon Gendlin, who filed a patent on November 29, 1996 for ‘Non-volatile record carrier with magnetic quantum-optical reading effect and method for its manufacture‘, which was granted on November 24, 1998.
It looks like we, like many other publications, could well have been had on this one. If we have, hats off to ‘Shimon Gendlin’ who’s done everything he could have done to make it look real.
So be it as you choose … here’s the original story.
Research and development company, Atom Chip Corporation, have unveiled a beast of a laptop – the competition-frying 6.8GHz AtomChip SG220-2 sporting a TeraByte of RAM and 2 TeraBytes of storage.
With enough firepower to make the latest high-end laptops look like backfiring peashooters, this monster achieves its breakneck speeds by dispensing with hard disk drives and thus increasing system stability by generating less heat and vibration from rattling disk operations.
The laptop uses new Quantum and Quantum-Optical devices for storing and processing information, with the machine being completely based on solid state AtomChip optoelectronics (whatever they are).
These non-volatile Quantum-Optical RAM wotsits increase the speed of the system, removing the need to refresh information after every cycle of reading of information, as with regular RAM.
The 6.8GHz behemoth is powered by AtomChip’s Quantum II processor (or four 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M processors) with a terabyte of Quantum-Optical non-volatile RAM (NvIOpSRAM-SODIMM 200-pin) onboard.
The new non-volatile Quantum-Optical RAM increases the speed of the system as the need to refresh information after every cycle of reading of information (like regular RAM) doesn’t exist any more.
Even the most obsessive MP3 file collector will have serious problems filling the colossal 2TB of non-volatile Quantum RAM storage space onboard (NvIOpRAM-ATA IDE).
Compared to these eye-watering specs, it’s a surprise to see that the screen’s a bit of a squinter, offering just a 12.1″ WXGA (1280 x 800) display.
The actual laptop looks a bit rubbish too, bedecked out in a ‘High Street’ bog standard silver finish with a design that won’t be troubling Sony and Apple execs.
Despite the nation-threatening amount of power on hand, Atom Chip are claiming an impressive battery life of approximately 8 hours for the AtomChip II processor and 3 hours for the 4 x Intel Pentium M processor version.
The company will be showcasing their Billy Whizz laptop at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) held in Las Vegas in January 2006.
Pricing has yet to be announced, but I suspect we’re talking ‘re-mortgaging the house’ here.
Atom Chip
6 September, 2005
Skype Secures Deal With 3G Mobile Partner, E-Plus
Skype has slapped hands and manfully patted backs with German network operator E-Plus as the VoIP giant secures their first 3G partnership.
The exclusive offering will see Skype bundling in their Internet telephony software with E-Plus’s flat-rate data subscription.
This will let subscribers to the Skype/E-Plus deal benefit from a fixed-rate mobile Internet access, freebie Skype calling and the ability to control call costs using the E-Plus flat-rate data subscription.
Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and Co-founder was ready with a quote: “We look forward to working with other innovative mobile operators around the world to bring the value and convenience of the Skype global Internet communications experience to their millions of mobile phone subscribers.”
The busy-bee Skypesters are said to be already hatching up schemes with a number of major handset and headset manufacturers – including Motorola – to develop a broader range of offer Skype-ready devices
“The use of Skype is growing strongly. Through our co-operation we are combining the advantages of mobile and stationary Internet access,” said Uwe Bergheim, Chief Executive Officer of E-Plus.
The flat-rate data subscription from E-Plus will be offered to its 9.8 million subscribers for €39.95 (~£27~$50) per month in October.
The company hopes to attract revenue from the fixed network and lure people off their landlines by persuading customers to make mobiles their de facto choice for making calls.
Skype currently claims more than 2.8 million Skype users in Germany.
Elsewhere, Skype has added a call forwarding function to the latest release of its VoIP software.
This lets users forward incoming Skype-to-Skype and SkypeIn calls to another Skype Name or to any landline or mobile phone.
The call forwarding is free so long as users have sufficient Skype balance available to forward the call to landline or mobile numbers.
Skype
E-Plus
6 September, 2005
Identity Theft May Increase With New Technology
In a damning blow to the UK government’s love affair with identity cards, a British criminologist has warned that the new technology could actually increase, rather than solve, the problem of identity theft and fraud.
Dr Emily Finch, of the University of East Anglia in England said that identity cards and chip and pin technology for credit cards were unlikely to alleviate the problem, as fraudsters react with more creative responses.
Finch said that a growing dependence on technology was leading to a breakdown in individual vigilance, which remains the best protection against fraud and identity theft.
“There is a worrying assumption that advances in technology will provide the solution to identity theft whereas it is possible that they may actually aggravate the problem,” she told the British Association science conference.
As part of her research, Finch interviewed thieves, vagabonds, fraudsters and ne’er do wells and asked about the impact new technology may have on their nefarious activities.
Not surprisingly, she learned that fraudsters were tenacious blighters, who were ready and willing to change their methods to elude new security measures.
“Studying the way that individuals disclose sensitive information would be far more valuable in preventing identity fraud than the evolution of technologically advanced but ultimately fallible measures to prevent misuse of personal information after it has been obtained,” she added.
As we reported last month, a survey by Gallup revealed that almost a fifth of US consumers admitted falling victim to identity theft, although Finch said that there were sometimes less dodgy reasons for fraud and identify theft – sometimes people just wanted to start again with a new identity.
Focusing on the UK government’s proposed ID card scheme for its citizens, Finch said that the cards could potentially increase fraudulent behaviour,
“What fraudsters know about is human nature,” said Finch. “And they adapt to things like the Internet which provides an absolutely fantastic base to access personal information.”
Despite ministers insisting that national identity cards would counter terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, critics like the civil rights group liberty say that the scheme won’t tackle identity fraud, crime or any of the high-profile problems the Government has claimed they will address.
Finch also expressed doubts about chip and pin technology (which enables consumers to purchase goods by punching in a personal number rather than using a signature), saying that criminals may switch from watching an individual punch in the code and stealing the card, and just nabbing credit card application forms and getting new cards and numbers instead.
5 September, 2005
4G Prototypes Phones Record Scorchio Speeds
Prototype cellphones capable of transmitting data faster than a startled squirrel on speed have been demonstrated by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, according to the New Scientist.
To test the speed and reliability of the new phones, the prototype handsets were used to view 32 high definition video streams from a car rolling along at 20 kilometres per hour.
NTT DoCoMo officials claimed that the 4G phones manage to receive data at the incredible rate of 100 megabits per second while on the move, and an astonishing gigabit per second while static.
At these kind of white-knuckle speeds, the contents of an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute.
Compare those breakneck speeds with the stately download speed of 384 kilobits per second (129 kilobits per second upload) offered by DoCoMo’s current 3G (third generation) phone network.
Naturally, the boffins behind NTT DoCoMo’s experiment high-speed phone network have come up with a suitably techie description of the technology, describing it as Variable-Spreading-Factor Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VSF-Spread OFDM).
This _apparently_ increases downlink speeds by using multiple radio frequencies to send the same data stream.
During the tests, another smartypants wireless networking trick was employed to send data via various routes across a network to further increase data capacity.
Going under the snappy acronym of MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output) multiplexing, the technology could, for example, enable a cellphone to receive data from more than one base station in range.
Lajos Hanzo, a communications expert at Southampton University in the UK found the prototypes “technically impressive,” but warned that NTT DoCoMo will need assistance from other phone companies for 4G take-up.
“In today’s world nobody can go it alone,” he told the New Scientist.
“And hence any standard proposal must be internationally ratified, which has not as yet take place,” he added.
There’s already been some international activity to cooperate on standards, with Japan and China signing a memorandum on 24 August to work together on 4G.
But don’t start throwing out your 3G phones quite yet though: NTT DoCoMo doesn’t expect to launch a commercial 4G network until 2010.
NTT DoCoMo
5 September, 2005
iTunes Promotion Sign Up Iggy Pop, Madonna and Little Richard
Pop stars are falling over themselves to fill their pockets with corporate cash as the Apple/Motorola iTunes phone promotion machine switches into overdrive.
Motorola has already waved their weighty wad in the direction of Madonna, Iggy Pop and a host of other music stars who have all been sufficiently tempted to associate their faces with the iTunes phone.
An article on the Marketing news Website Brand Republic reports that: “Motorola has signed an artist from every generation to appear in the ads, including Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, Lil’ John, The White Stripes, Sleater-Kinney, Sum 41, Mya, Pussycat Dolls and Billie Joe from Green Day.”
The company are still negotiating with Alanis Morissette and The Bravery.
Serious underground tremors are expected around Jimi Hendrix’s burial site as the rock legend will no doubt reach maximum graveyard revolutions on the news that a look-a-like has been booked to perform in the ads.
Apparently, all the pop stars will be seen singing in a phone box in the adverts.
The Brand Republic article goes on to say that, “The ads may debut from next week, at the same time the Motorola phone with iPod personal music system is launched.”
The iTunes-supporting phone is rumoured to be called the Motorola Rokr and will be made available in two models offering 512MB or 1GB of storage.
The ‘iPhone’ is expected to be announced by Apple at a press conference on 7th September.
Motorola
iTunes
5 September, 2005
Napster Releases Subscription Figures
For the first time since its UK launch May 2004, the online music store Napster has dished the dirt on its usage and membership figures for the UK.
According to their figures, Napster has now scooped up 750,000 registered UK members, notching up 55 million downloads and streams in 15 months.
The LA-based company also released demographic information about their subscribers, which revealed that 80 per cent of its subscribers are over 25 years old, 75 per cent are blokes and over 50 per cent have kids.
The company claims to be currently attracting 50,000 new members a month.
Reflecting the changing trends of the music buying public, Napster claims that one in five or their subscribers no longer buy CDs, preferring to buy from their online catalogue of 1.6 million tracks – the largest in the world.
This represents an amazing turnaround for Napster who famously started life as the brainchild of an 18-year-old college dropout named Shawn Fanning in 1999.
Creating an online peer-to-peer file-sharing system that allowed computer users to share and swap files – specifically music – through a centralised file server, Napster immediately attracted the wrath of the Recording Industry Association of America who charged them with tributary copyright infringement.
In February 2001, a judge ruled that Napster had to stop the distribution of copyrighted material through its network and was forced to block over 250,000 songs using over 1.6 million filenames.
Things got worse in July 2001 when a judge told Napster it must block all files infringing copyright, effectively shutting the network down.
Napster folded in September 2002, but the brand was revived as a legal P2P service by the owners of the Napster name Roxio in 2003, quickly growing to become a major competitor for market leader iTunes.
Despite rival, cheaper services being launched by HMV and Virgin, Napster has said that it will not be reducing prices, preferring to concentrate on its subscription-based service.
This lets users ‘rent’ unlimited songs for a £9.95 ($18.5, €14.7) monthly fee with the penalty of losing access to the songs if the user’s subscription lapses.
‘We believe that the market is all about subscription,’ says Leanne Sharman, vice-president of Napster UK. ‘We’re seeing significant growth in that area.’
Napster UK
5 September, 2005
NSF GENI Project Looks To The Next-Generation Internet
The boffins at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) have proposed “re-engineering” the Internet to create a whizz-bang updated version that connects all kinds of devices with built in security and robustness.
With the government agency challenging researchers to look at the Internet as a “clean slate”, the NSF’s Global Environment for Networking Investigations (GENI) initiative proposes a research grant program and an experimental facility to test new Internet technologies.
NSF officials trumpeted the GENI project at a conference for the Special Interest Group on Data Communications in Philadelphia last week.
But before you get too excited about this new super-improved Internet being piped into your devices (ooo-er), NSF spokesman Richard “Randy” Vines has some news for you: it’s not yet funded and it’s only “an idea under consideration.”
With the Internet continuing to grow exponentially and with researchers predicting an explosion of data in the next decade from mobile and wireless devices as well as sensors, the GENI project intends to anticipate and envision the Internet society’s needs 15 years or more from now.
The goals of the GENI Initiative include a new core functionality for the Internet, with new naming, addressing, and identity architectures; enhanced capabilities, including additional security architecture and a design for high availability; and new Internet services and applications.
According to the NSF’s GENI Web page, the GENI project intends to “explore new networking capabilities that will advance science and stimulate innovation and economic growth,” adding, “The GENI Initiative responds to an urgent and important challenge of the 21st Century to advance significantly the capabilities provided by networking and distributed system architectures
The site also urges the enabling of “new classes of societal-level services and applications”. We’ve no idea what that means, but it sure sounds good to us.
Faster transmission speeds aren’t on the agenda of the GENI Project, however, with David Clark, a senior research scientist at the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sagely commenting, “Making a network faster has never made it more secure or easier to use.”
National Science Foundation
NSF Global Environment for Networking Investigations
2 September, 2005
UK Online and Be Unlimited Ready 24Mbps Broadband Services
UK Online have officially joined the 24Mbps broadband party by announcing the October launch of their own broadband ADSL2+ based product.
The Easynet-owned company joins fellow 24Mbit Broadband providers Be Unlimited in ramping up the pressure on BT with their soon-come cutting-edge ADSL2+ services to be offered in urban areas
UK Online
The ADSL2+ UK Online service will enable lucky surfers to hurtle around the Internet at nigh-on reckless speeds of 24Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream – compare that to BT’s current broadband offering which chugs along at a snail-like maximum plod of 2Mbps.
BT has announced that it is trialing speeds of up to 8Mbps, which is rather like someone offering you a thimbleful of Kalibur when there’s a yard of Old Ferret Stripper Ale in the offing elsewhere.
UK Online has been conducting technical trials of its ADSL2+ service since March of this year and their 24Mb broadband service should be available in October for under £30 (~$55 ~€43) a month.
Chris Stening, General Manager at UK Online, purred, “We’ve been pushing the current ADSL technology to its limits with 8Mb broadband since late last year. This is yet another innovation for UK Online.”
Consumers will be able to register their interest in UK Online’s service via www.ukonline.net
Be Unlimited
Be Unlimited have already started public tests for their ADSL2+ service with the company expected to offer its super fast service from exchanges in the London area, with out-of-towners following in the next couple of months.
Businesses signing up for the service will be able to enjoy the service for nowt until the end of September this year, after which they’ll pay £70 (~$128 ~€102) per month.
Individual punters can also cash in on the freebie until the end of September, after which they will be charged £20 (~$36 ~€29) per month.
Temptingly, there’s no connection fee for new users with a free Wi-Fi-enabled modem lobbed in for no charge (the company will be using DSLAMs from Alcatel, and a Thompson 716g V5 wireless modem, optimised for VoIP and video-streaming applications.)
“This pilot would be fantastic for small businesses, but we’re not setting up for time-critical businesses such as city traders,” warned a Be spokesperson (in other words, “it’s a pilot scheme – so expect some glitches!”).
Be Unlimited
2 September, 2005
Super Sleek Sony T Series Laptops Announced
Large pools of drooling saliva formed around our mouse mats this morning when we caught sight of Sony’s new range of slimline laptops, the Sony T.
Slicker than the Torey Canyon in a sea storm, these wafer-thin laptops makes Kate Moss look like a pie-scoffing lardbucket, measuring just 272mm x 195mm x21mm and weighing a gravity-untroubling 1.25kg.
Despite their sylph-like dimensions, Sony have managed to wedge in the gubbins for a fully spec’ed machine, powered by a pokey Celeron 1Ghz / Pentium M 753 at 1.2Ghz CPU supported by a 915GMS graphics chipset.
There’s also healthy 512Mb of RAM (upgradeable up to 1.5Gb) onboard, 40 to 60Gb HDD space and a DVD burner
Connectivity is taken care of with Wireless LAN and Bluetooth, USB 2.0 and a MS/SD/MMC port, and there’s also support for Sony’s new Felica contactless smart card technology.
The 1366×768 resolution display boasts a Backlight LED which is claimed to produce a screen 30% brighter than Sony’s current laptops.
As ever, it’s the lucky Japanese who get to play with the cool toys first, with the Sony T going on sale in Japan from September 10th onwards.
Sony Japan’s Website carries extensive information about the new T range, but seeing as our command of Japanese is on a par with our harp playing abilities, we can’t tell you much past the fact that Skype comes preloaded and that the units will be available in a range of three colours – slate grey, charcoal black and white silver. All look fabulous.
No further details have been released yet (at least not in a language that we could understand) and there’s been no comment on pricing or UK availability.
But we’d like one please. Two, if you’re asking.
Sony Japan
1 September, 2005
Teleo, VoIP Startup Grabbed By Microsoft
From deep within the Microsoft base, Bill Gates has pulled a few levers and dispatched a corporate grabbing tentacle in the direction of Teleo, a privately held provider of VoIP software and services.
The move comes hot on the heels of Google’s recently announced Google Talk service and suggests that Microsoft is ready to start slopping its considerable weight around the crowded VoIP market and give Skype a run for its money.
The San Francisco-based outfit Teleo was founded just two years ago and got as far offering a beta PC to PC or standard phone Skype-like VoIP service with click-to-call dialing through Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer before Gates grabbed the product.
Microsoft are expected to integrate Teleo technologies into the infrastructure that supports MSN, aiming to eventually deliver new VoIP consumer apps in future releases of MSN services.
“Teleo has great technology to deliver superior VoIP quality and an excellent overall customer experience. This acquisition opens up infinite opportunities for Microsoft to enable even more relationship-centric communications experiences for our customers in the future,” commented Microsoft’s corporate vice president of the MSN Communication Services and Member Platform group Blake Irving.
Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but Microsoft have said that members of the Teleo executive team will continue to work closely with MSN, while some Teleo product developers are expected to shuffle across and join MSN.
“It’s going to be very exciting to see Teleo software extended into MSN products and services that millions of consumers worldwide rely upon every day for their information and communication needs,” purred Wendell Brown, co-founder of Teleo. “The union of our respective technologies and talents has the potential to deliver great value to customers.”
Teleo MSN
1 September, 2005