‘Tis the season for Christmas cards. Standing in the aisles at Hallmark or the local grocery store, spending endless hours searching for just the right bifold slip of paper to express your own vision of the Christmas Spirit for your significant other, your mom, your dad, your brothers and sisters, grandparents and that irritating guy from accounting. And then spending a ludicrous amount on the dozen cards you’ve collected at the checkout lane while not being completely happy with any of them. You know the drill…

There must be a better way.

May we humbly suggest you try your hand at making a personalized card at home? It doesn’t have to be complicated… it’s the thought that counts, remember? And no matter how bad you are at drawing or expressing your innermost feelings, it’s got to turn out better than the card drawn by a professional illustrator that you’ll see in the video after the break.

Okay, perhaps we’re not being fair. It’s not that the illustrator drew a bad card, really. It’s more that the card was more representative of the effects of a professional driver on a racetrack with a 2012 BMW M5. In fact, as far as we’re concerned, the card is perfect. Check it out on video after the break. Read more…

Microsoft has announced today that it won’t have a major presence at CES after this coming show, CES 2012, which kicks off in a little over two weeks’ time. Though company reps will still take meetings with partners, there won’t be a Microsoft-led keynote — long a staple of the show — nor will there be a booth on the show floor.

In a post on Microsoft’s official blog, the company’s communications VP Frank Shaw says that its “product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.” It’s a line that Apple has long taken, having pulled out of Macworld several years ago to focus on its own events; indeed, Microsoft now hosts a number of significant conferences of its own every year including MIX and BUILD, both venues that it has used recently to make major announcements.

Shaw closes his post by saying “we look forward to working with CEA for many years to come,” so this isn’t an outright “goodbye” to an organization with which Microsoft has worked for over two decades, it’s just a significant scaling back at the Association’s premiere event. It’s difficult to imagine CES without a Gates or Ballmer keynote at this point — is the age of the mega trade show drawing to a close?

SOURCE via All Things D

Hasbro sued Asus over the name of its Transformer Prime tablet last week, in a federal district court. The toymaker is no doubt worried that the name could be confused with that of its Transformers franchise, not to mention Optimus Prime, the lead protagonist of the animation and film series… though we’re not quite sure how a robot that transforms into a semi-truck could be confused with a tablet and detachable keyboard. Who knows, maybe dad may accidentally buy the wrong Christmas present for little Pete.

Perhaps Hasbro is worried that tablet buyers might see it as a licensed product. Hasbro has already sent out a generic statement about its willingness to “aggressively protect its brands”. According to court filings, Hasbro’s attempting to seal the actual complaint, but we can also see that the company’s pursuing a preliminary injunction against Asus as we speak. The court has given Asus 21 days to respond to the complaint.

According to the filing, Hasbro’s citing trademarks 2455261, 3689720, 3468487, 76690677 and 85008156. Notably, the last one is a pending trademark for “Transformers Prime,” its 2010 animated series. Hasbro would hold that particular trademark for toys, board games, and animated shows.

Last week, we heard reports that Apple was thinking of buying itself a nice little flash storage company for Christmas. This week, the news of Apple’s acquisition of Anobit, an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in streamlining flash memory, was reported by Calcalist financial daily and then seemingly confirmed by the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.

Engadget reports that the news first appeared in the Calcalist, which valued the deal at $500 million, a figure that matches last week’s rumors. The news report was then confirmed via a tweet from the Twitter account for the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.

“Welcome to Israel, Apple Inc. on your 1st acquisition here. I’m certain that you’ll benefit from the fruit of the Israeli knowledge,” the tweet from Dr. Eitan Eliram, who manages the account, reads.

Neither Apple nor Anobit has commented on the deal, which is not unusual, as Cupertino often doesn’t comment publicly on its acquisitions. Anobit represents one of only a handful of hardware companies acquired by Apple. This includes NeXT, which was founded by Steve Jobs after he was ousted from Apple, and PA Semi, a fabless semiconductor company that was acquired by Apple in April of 2008 for $278 million in cash.

Google has announced that it has put a temporary stop to the roll-out of Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, to Nexus S users. Speaking via the Google support pages, Google community manager Paul Wilcox has informed users that the update had been paused in some areas to give the company an opportunity to “monitor feedback.” Judging from the statement, it doesn’t seem to have affected users in all countries, as Wilcox says the update is continuing ‘around the world’ and that users will receive a second notification once the update is available in their region once again.

If you received an update notification a little while ago but the update isn’t currently available for your phone, this is likely the result of Google pausing the update in your area while we monitor feedback. The Android 4.0 update is continuing to roll out around the world so your phone will receive another update notification when it’s available again in your region.

Mr. Wilcox did not elaborate on the feedback Google is currently monitoring and Google has yet to release an official statement on the matter, but Electronista reports that it could be because users have been reporting “unusually high battery drain,” which the site thinks could be down to an increase in processor usage. We’ll keep you posted on this issue and update if Google confirms or contradicts these reports.

There have been rumors last week that Dessau could be leaving the company and today we got the confirmation via a blog post published by Dessau on AMD’s website. The post, which offers some predictions for AMD in 2012 reads:

“I too find myself at an inflection point. While I am truly excited by the prospects for AMD, there are projects in my life outside of AMD that offer me compelling opportunities. As some of you know, one of those projects is the website The 3 Minute Mentor; I have been planning a book based on the website for some time. […] “I will remain at AMD to assist with marketing organization transitions and the 2012 planning cycle. After that, I will put on my shades and head off into the Texas sun.”

A unnamed source with AMD told us that some additional changes may soon be coming. A good chunk of the marketing team was served pink slips earlier this year, shortly after Read’s arrival, when 10 percent of AMD’s workforce was waved goodbye. Among the laid off was corporate fellow and corporate vice president Patrick Moorhead, who has moved on and has become a member of the blogging world and founded business consulting firm Moor Insights & Strategy.

A Nokia-focused blog claims to have obtained preliminary information about the release dates versions of upcoming Windows Phone versions. DGui wrote that Tango will be shown at CES 2012 on January 13 and Windows Phone 8, code-named Apollo, will ship in mid-June 2012.

Tango will be demonstrated on Nokia phones, including the models Lumia 719 and 900. Among the features will be LTE support, support for smaller screens, and smaller chassis sizes. There was no confirmation for the report as both Nokia and Microsoft declined to comment.

Nokia’s first Windows Phone 8 devices may be shown at Nokia Connection 2012 and include “multiple ‘high end’ devices” as well as a “new camera flagship”. Apollo could be supporting NFC “dual core processors, larger displays and larger bodies.”

Also noteworthy is that the source for the article claims that a Nokia Windows 8 tablet is on the way for June 2012 as well.

SOURCE via DGUI