Clayton Morris from FOX News reports that HP is currently doing “proof of concept work” testing the Preview Edition of Windows 8 on TouchPad tablets without webOS installed.

According to unnamed sources within HP, the company is having internal discussions about reviving the defunct webOS-based version after the supposed second fire sale wave takes place on an unspecified date. The company is also considering building an entirely new device instead with Windows 8 in mind.

The TouchPad was a brief glimmer on the market before HP pulled the device not two months after its debut. Yet despite the talk about selling off its PC division and putting webOS on hold, HP firmly stated that it had no plans to exit the tablet sector.

HP seemingly backed up its commitment by resurrecting the TouchPad for a brief fire sale back in August, offering the device for $99. The tablets were consumed in a matter of hours, prompting HP to promise another wave at an undetermined date.

It’s quite possible that HP is testing Windows 8 on the current hardware set to see if any slight modifications are needed to the TouchPad before Microsoft reportedly launches Windows 8 in August 2012. The company could switch to Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 and add more RAM to possibly put it in the same league as the Android 4-powered Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime.

Morris also reports that layoff notices in the PC division have been put on hold while HP determines its outcome. On the webOS front, the company is reportedly meeting with a number of interested buyers including HTC, LG, Nikon, and Amazon.

A Forrester analyst yesterday told the Linux world that it is game over for the OS. No more hope for world domination. At least on desktops and mobile devices.

This special post begins with the following notes: “Poor Linux. It struggled so hard to dominate the world. It was the little open source engine that could, but it didn’t.” It ends with “[…] I do not think the open source community can muster the forces necessary to compete. Open source never seems to be the innovator. Instead, it seems to disrupt pricing power for established technologies. Game over for worldwide dominance.” Swallow that.

Forrester analyst Mike Gualtieri recognizes that Linux has 60 percent of the server market, but states it only has 2 percent of the desktop market. iOS and Android virtually killed it in mobile. In Gualtieri’s words: “Sure, Android is built on top of Linux, but Linux is only one of many piece parts of the Android mobile operating system. It is not Linux.”

SOURCE via Forrester

Google just released the stable version of Chrome 15. There are plenty of security fixes and the new tab page sans bookmarks is now live.

The new release also features a record sum of rewards paid to security researchers – more than $27,000 for a total of 27 published security issues. The Chromium revision log suggests that Google 15 has more than 5000 revisions over Chrome 14. Chrome has changes on the surface as well, as it now features the revised new tab page that has much more focus on applications and horizontally sliding pages. Future Chrome versions will get Most visited, Apps, and also a Bookmarks page, which is already live in developer versions of the browser.

Also noteworthy is that apps and extensions are now presented in a tab page that can be accessed via the browser settings page.

The developer channel of Chrome has just been branched to version 16 and indicates that the next version of the browser will have at least 5500 changes over version 15. Version 17 is in the nightly channel.

SOURCE via Google

The maker of those impressive SandForce SSD controllers that we so fondly know now has a new owner. Semiconductors and software company LSI Corporation today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SandForce, Inc. Under the agreement, LSI will pay approximately $322 million in cash, net of cash assumed, and assume approximately $48 million of unvested stock options and restricted shares held by SandForce employees.

LSI’s WarpDrive family of products already uses SandForce flash storage processors. The acquisition will benefit LSI’s competitive position in the server and storage PCIe flash adapter market, but availability of SandForce in the consumer and enthusiast products shouldn’t be affected in the near future.

“Flash-based solutions are critical for accelerating application performance in servers, storage and client devices,” said Abhi Talwalkar, LSI president and chief executive officer. “Adding SandForce’s technology to LSI’s broad storage portfolio is consistent with our mission to accelerate storage and networking. The acquisition represents a significant, rapidly growing market opportunity for LSI over the next several years.”

Michael Raam, SandForce president and CEO, said, “The combination of SandForce and LSI allows us to deliver differentiated solutions in the PCIe flash adapter segment by tightly integrating flash memory and management. In addition, leveraging our flash storage processors with LSI’s comprehensive IP portfolio and leading-edge silicon design platforms will lead to innovative solutions.”

The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2012 subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon closing, the SandForce team will become part of LSI’s newly formed Flash Components Division, with Raam as general manager.

Tuesday in its report announcing the financial results for the third quarter ending September 30, Amazon said that September 28th was the biggest order day ever for Kindle, even bigger than previous holiday peak days. That was the day Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire for $199, the Kindle Touch 3G for $149, the Kindle Touch for $99, and the all new Kindle for only $79.

“In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “And based on what we’re seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we’re increasing capacity and building millions more than we’d already planned.”

The company said that net sales increased 44-percent to $10.88 billion in the third quarter, compared with $7.56 billion in third quarter 2010. Yet despite the spike in pre-order sales, Amazon reports that net income actually decreased 73-percent to $63 million in the third quarter, or $0.14 per diluted share, compared with a net income of $231 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, in third quarter 2010.

Amazon expects to see fourth quarter net sales between $16.45 billion and $18.65 billion, or to grow between 27-percent and 44-percent compared with fourth quarter 2010. Operating income (loss) is expected to be between $200 million and $250 million, or between 142-percent decline and 47-percent decline compared with fourth quarter 2010. This may be due to Amazon’s investment in its own growth and in the Kindle Fire tablet.

Tuesday Amazon offered numerous highlights that transpired over the third quarter including the Kindle Fire announcement, launching the French Amazon Kindle Store, its licensing agreement with 20th Century Fox and PBS for Amazon Prime, launching a Spanish version of Amazon and the addition of new features to its Amazon Web Services.

40-year-old Robert Delgado of Los Angeles was sentenced to eight years in prison on Monday for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He pleaded guilty in May of this year after he was arrested in his Monterey Park home in March 2011. He had already been on parole for identity theft prior to his arrest.

According to court documents, Delgado allegedly obtained credit card numbers, forged credit cards and government issued-ID stamped with his photograph, and then used the stolen documents to purchase HDTVs, jewelry, power tools and other electronics. He then would turn around and sell those items for cash.

U.S. Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said on Tuesday that Delgado was trying to hide his computer’s hard drive when he was arrested in March. The drive contained personal information for more than 300,000 people including images used to create copies of credit cards, images to create DMV documents and ID cards, and scanned checks obtained from other people.

“Authorities are continuing to investigate how Delgado came into possession of the 300,000 identity profiles,” he said.

The investigation leading to Delgado’s arrest began when a victim reported to the U.S. Post Office that his mail had been put on vacation hold without his permission. He also discovered fraudulent charges on his Lowe’s store credit card and additional accounts that had been fraudulently opened in his name. Eve Williams, a U.S. Postal Inspector, took the case, and with the help of an informant, tracked Delgado down via his phone number listed on his Facebook page.

GE Moneybank, who managed the original victim’s Lowe’s card, revealed that Delgado had made 350 calls within three months to the company even though he didn’t have an account. In addition to Lowe’s, Delgado was calling JC Penny’s merchant account line to see what stolen numbers — which were provided by a co-conspirator — actually had credit. GE Moneybank guarantees those accounts as well.

According to Williams, Delgado and a co-conspirator where caught on camera using a fake credit card at Lowe’s in October 2010. She also traced his phone number to shopping malls in Southern California where fraudulent transactions took place. Other affected credit card banks included HSBC, Citibank and Target National Bank.

SOURCE via CNET

A recent discovery made by Geek.com shows that, for example, Volkswagen tells its supplier partners that the best way to use its website is, in fact, IE6.

Of course, the recommendation only applies to vwgroupsupply.com, not the general vw.com website. You could be making fun of VW and how it tells its partners to use a decade-old browser, while Microsoft spends millions of dollars in an effort to convince users that IE6 is risky to use and IE9, or, at the very least, IE8, is a much better choice.

However, with a more reasonable approach, we take the guess that the recommendation has to do with the fact that this website ties in with Volkswagen’s internal information architecture, which may be standardized on IE6. Large corporations have standardized their software environment on one very specific browser version and a transition or re-qualification of another browser is a major pain in the neck and requires substantial investment. Until Volkswagen does not see a need to update all of its internal applications, including manufacturing software, there will be no change in the browser requirement.

Microsoft currently states that IE6 usage around the world is about 9 percent. More than half of the world’s IE6 users are in China. According to data provided by Internet World Stats and Net Applications, the IE6 user base in the U.S. may be about 6.3 million users, which suggests that a good portion of IE6 users, may, in fact, be locked up in industrial applications.

SOURCE via Geek