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An Internet 100x Faster and Cheaper

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MIT researchers say they can make the Internet 100X to 1000X faster and a lot cheaper (by reducing the amount of energy it consumes).

Vincent Chan, MIT researcherThe trick gain is to replace electrical signals inside the routers with faster optical signals would make the Internet 100, if not 1,000 times faster, while also reducing the amount of energy it consumes.

Yes, optical fibers are already widely used in the Internet. But the routers that direct traffic on the Internet typically convert optical signals to electrical ones for processing, then convert them back for transmission, a process that consumes time and energy.

Vincent Chan, MIT researcher [left] and his team developed a "flow switching" architecture that creates a dedicated path across the network so routers along that path would only accept signals coming from one direction and send them off in only one direction. Since the optical signals would be no longer coming from different directions, there would be no need to convert.

Go MIT Flow Switching

Tech Data Buys DLi Portugal

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Tech Data buys certain assets of distributor DLI.

Distribuicao e Logistica para Informatica, with €124m in annual revenue, serves the Portuguese corporate IT and consumer IT sectors.

Dli Portugal

Go DLi Acquisition

Digital Download Passes Blu-ray for First Time

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Tt's not that Blu-ray isn't finally racing along…it's more the danger than digital download is sprinting faster and threatens to permanently overtake Blu-ray any time soon.

Blu-Ray by Media Range Now digital distribution platforms for in-home entertainment (including video-on-demand) have outpaced Blu-ray Disc in US consumer spending during the first half of 2010, passing the $1 billion mark for the first time, according to new figures released by DEG.

Electronic sell-through increased 37% year-over-year to $285 million between January and June, as video-on-demand (VOD) rose 19% to $865 million, for a combined growth of 23% to $1.1 billion.

Sales and rentals of Blu-ray discs, reached a combined total of $982 million for the 6-month period. Blu-ray sell-through increased 84% year-over-year to $733 million during the half.

Blu-ray disc shipments topped 77 million units in the first half of 2010, nearly double the number of the comparable period in 2009, according to figures compiled by Swicker & Associates on behalf of the DEG. Household penetration of all Blu-ray compatible devices, including set-top players, PC drives and PlayStation 3 consoles, now reaches 19.4 million U.S. homes.

Overall consumer spending for the first half of 2010 in the home entertainment window for pre-recorded entertainment — which includes DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital distribution — reached $8.8 billion, off 3% compared to the same period in 2009. Yet consumer transactions for home entertainment products were up 2% for the first half of the year, DEG says.

Packaged media sell-through, which includes DVD and Blu-ray Disc, declined 7% year-over-year during the half. But the rate of decline slowed to 3% during the second quarter.

Rental spending in USA was down nearly 5% to about $3 billion between January and June, says DEG (citing Rentrak Corp.'s Home Video Essentials). The trade group faults Movie Gallery store closures for the decline, noting that kiosk revenues increased 55% during the 6-month period.

Go DEG

Corbisgate for Bill Gates?

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While Steve Jobs battles "Antennagate," Bill Gates is riding under the radar with Corbisgate.

A 6-person company near Seattle sued stock photo company Corbis (Bill Gates is sole owner) and won a $20 million judgment. Naturally Corbis is appealing the decision.

the Corbis cookie jar The Superior Court jury decided Corbis did enter business with Infoflows and then developed the company's ideas into a service for identifying objects in its digital photo collection. The court called Corbis's behaviour "fraudulent."

If you've been in the computer business for a while, you'd heard stories and allegations like this. Wouldn't it be ironic if Bill's fingers are caught in the Corbis cookie jar?

Infoflows, run by mostly former Microsofties, launched to create tech to identify digital objects. Corbis made an agreement with Infoflows around 2005, but gave info from Inflows to its outside patent counsel (presumably to figure how best to legally re-engineer similar technology). Corbis terminated the agreement in 2006, just days after receiving some key software designs.

How involved was Bill Gates? According to Infoflows, before going to court they first complained in Feb. 2006 about Corbis directly to The Man himself–in Bill Gates' office at Microsoft HQ in February 2006.

The content of that meeting between Infoflows and Corbis has been sealed by the courts, but the President of Infoflows says tantaizingly, "There's a big fat secret in there. I'll tell you this: We would be happy to have it unsealed."

Go Corbis vs Infoflow

Premier Mounts for iPad

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Premier Mounts VIP-100 and VIP-200 mounting frames for Apple’s iPadPremier Mounts introduces the VIP-100 and VIP-200 mounting frames for Apple’s iPad - a device that could quickly become the standard for touch screens in the Home.

The frames, designed to securely hold the iPad, complement the iPad's stylish look and easily fasten to any wall or table mount or stand with a compatible VESA 100 mounting pattern.

Go iPad Frame Mount

Go iPad desktop mount

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