Nokia Teams With Microsoft Digital Media Format Support

Microsoft and Nokia agreed to long-term collaboration on extended digital media format support. This collaboration includes support for Windows Media® Audio, Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) 10 and Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) on music oriented Nokia handsets, and including support for Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Digital Rights Management and the MPEG Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) family of codecs in Windows Media Player via a plug-in.

Agreement between Nokia and Mircosoft, announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, includes long-term collaboration on support on Nokia handsets and Windows Media Player. This dual-technology-stack support from both companies will further broaden the range of music enjoyment choices for consumers and delivery options for content owners and service providers, as well as ensure easy device connection and content flow between Nokia handsets and Windows XP-based PCs.

The mobile music service from Nokia and Loudeye is based on the OMA DRM and MPEG AAC standards and enables a wireless operator's customers to search, listen, download and pay for music using an operator branded music application on their mobile device. Windows Media Player is used for the PC component of the music solution, and wireless operators will be able to brand their music service when it is integrated into the Windows Media Player.

"This agreement makes it easier for consumers to download music they want to listen to, without having to worry about whether or not the file format is supported - it's all about enabling choice without compromising compatibility," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Multimedia Business Group, Nokia. "The broad reaching popularity of Windows Media Player, its comprehensive feature set and support for service integration made it a natural choice for us when looking at the PC component of the mobile music solution we are offering to mobile operators."

"Microsoft and Nokia recognize that interoperability and ease of use are crucial to delivering a seamless consumer experience and enabling digital music to be enjoyed on the move," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "This agreement marks the beginning of a collaborative effort that will greatly enhance the mobile phone as a personal music device, and help realize our vision of digital entertainment anywhere."

Starting immediately, operators can provide their customers access and download of music using the mobile music solution from Nokia and Loudeye, allowing instant access to purchase content through Nokia handsets or Windows XP-based PCs. By supporting MTP on their handsets, Nokia is ensuring consumers have a simple and easy sync experience with their phones when transferring music to and from Windows XP-based PCs using Windows Media Player.

Dell announces official availability of Android-powered Venue smartphone in Singapore

Do you remember the new Dell-related article we posted three months ago? You know, the one where Dell was showing off its Dell Streak 7 and Venue at a media lunch shortly after Chinese New Year and proclaiming that both smartphones will be making their way down to Singapore "in the next couple of months"? Well, it turns out that the staff at Dell were apparently not very good with dates, as it has already been three months since that incident, and there is still no sight of the elusive Streak 7 tablet and Venue smartphone that should have already arrived based on Dells estimations.

However, patience is always a virtue, and it seems that today is the day where three long months of waiting where finally paid off, for Dell has just confirmed in a press release that the Venue is still on track for a local launch, and will be available for sale to consumers from May 14.

According to Dell, the Venue will sport a 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen display that utilizes the tough Gorilla Glass to protect against scratches, along with an eight-megapixel rear-facing camera, while processing power is supplied by Qualcomms 1GHz Snapdragon system-on-a-chip (SoC).On the software side, Dell has confirmed that the Venue will be preloaded with the same proprietary Stage user interfacethat was present on its five-inch Streak tablet, along with version 2.2 (aka Froyo) of the Android operating system.

Unfortunately, the company had conveniently neglected to mention whether it will be providing the smartphone with an upgrade path to Gingerbread or not. As such, users who are keen on replacing their current smartphones with Venue will have to decide whether they are willing to live with this little uncertainty until Dell decides to issue an official statement pertaining to this issue. However, if the thought of getting a smartphone that may potentially have no upgrade path to Gingerbread is of little concern to you, the Venue can be yours at the recommended retail price of S$738 when it is officially available for sale on May 14.And yes, it can be purchased with carrier subsidies from all three local telcos.

DreamWorks releases an open source software

The software DreamWorks is being given away as an open source license is called OpenVDB. DreamWorks states at their download site,

The OpenVDB library comprises a hierarchical data structure and a suite of tools for the efficient manipulation of sparse, possibly time-varying, volumetric data discretized on a three-dimensional grid. It is based on VDB, which was developed by Ken Museth at DreamWorks Animation, and it offers an effectively infinite 3D index space, compact storage (both in memory and on disk), fast data access (both random and sequential), and a collection of algorithms specifically optimized for the data structure for common tasks such as filtering, CSG, compositing, numerical simulation, sampling, and voxelization from other geometric representations.

A November 22 on-line issue of the Wall Street Journal quotes a Mr. David Prescott who worked as a visual-effects supervisor for the "Guardians” animation after some were curious why DreamWorks would give away free software. Prescott stated that a release of the software was done in hopes that it would be adopted as an industry standard and possibly get adapted in other software company tool kit features, which would in turn benefit DreamWorks. The article goes on to state that open source releases of special animation software isn’t unique to DreamWorks and noted that Lucasfilm Ltd. and Sony Pictures both have released their own software as well.

To learn more about the free software download, you can check out the DreamWorks site here and learn more about it.

GC 2009 Date de sortie de Dark Void

Non content de vous avoir ravitaillé en images de Dark Void ce matin, Capcom vous offre également la date de sortie de son jeu tout rempli de jet pack. C'est donc le 12 janvier que le titre sortira aux Etats-Unis, 3 jours avant son arrivée en Europe.

Dark Void PS3

Dark Void 360

Dark Void PC

EPoX Boards Ready For Sempron

Leveraging existing platforms to support value segments, AMD released a newline of processors, Sempron™ that serves the needs of the basic PC market. EPoXat the same time released Sempron™ supported mainboard list for selection.

The initial AMD Sempron processor supports multi-platforms, ranging from SocketA, Socket 754 and Socket 939. It also integrates 256KB of L2 cache and supportsonly 32-bit OS, differencing from Athlon 64-bit CPU. As supporting Socket754/939, users can easily upgrade from 32-bit platform to 64-bit, the nextgeneration platform, while keeping the same hardware and maintaining the mostcost effective performance.

Sempron is invented from Latin Semper. "Semper", Latin for "always", is morecommonly used in the phrase "Semper fidelis", or "semper fi", meaning alwaysfaithful. As its name suggested, AMD Sempron™ processors are being developed tomeet the evolving day-to-day needs of home and business PC users. The newoffering is able to run over 60,000 of the worlds most popular applicationsflawlessly and deliver maximum performance on the mainstream applications, suchas web browsing, email, and word processing, even downloading and playing music.Also, it is optimized for Microsoft Windows XP Professional, and is compatiblewith Windows XP Home Edition/98/ME/NT/2000, as well as Linux and other PCoperation systems.

The AMD Sempron™ processor is set to redefine everyday computing. It is at thehead of its class for all of the most important performance measurements.Sempron™ 2800+ had been proved being 106% outperformed its counterparts. Tofulfill the demand for Sempron™ s market, EPoX released a list of mainboardmodels that support Sempron™ processor.

AMDSempron™ (Thoroughbred) Supported Mainboard List

Model

Chipset

Model

Chipset

1

EP-8KDA3+

nForce3 250Gb

10

EP-8HDA5+

K8T800

2

EP-8KDA3J

nForce3 250Gb

11

EP-8KRAI

KT600

3

EP-8RDA6+ Pro

nForce2 Ultra400Gb

12

EP-8K9A7I

KT400A

4

EP-8RDA+ Pro

nForce2 Ultra400

13

EP-8KMM5+

KM400A

5

EP-8RDA3+ Pro

nForce2 Ultra400

14

EP-8KMM5I

KM400A

6

EP-8RDA3I Pro

nForce2 Ultra400

15

EP-8KMM3I

KM400

7

EP-8RGM3I

nFore2IGP

Final Fantasy IV headed for iOS December 20th

Phone-based gamers and Final Fantasy fans will be happy to know that Final Fantasy IV will be released for iOS within the month – December 20th, to be exact. Though there wasnt an official release announcement from Square Enix, both the publisher and iTunes have advertised for the game on their respective websites.

Now, the game is technically a remake of the original – it will have additional content in the form of mini-games, bug fixes, and other improvements. The game will even have 3D graphics and a new translation. Not bad for a iOS release, considering the version for the Nintendo DS was released all the way back in 2008.

Theres a bit of sad news when it comes to Android owners, as the game will not have the same release date for them. Theyll be getting the short end of the stick, as the release date is lost somewhere in 2013. Not a great Christmas for Android owners.

The price may be a little off-putting – once the initial launch price has ended, its estimated to go up to a little over $17. Thats quite a bit to be set back for an iOS game, especially not an original game. Perhaps Square Enix thinks itll really draw in the crowds. Or the niche group. In any case, the fellow over there are trying to weigh things out by cutting prices of other final Fantasy titles. If you head over to the App Store, you can see that FF1 and FF2 are both only $4 instead of their normal $9. A bit of relief on the wallet, but doesnt quite make up for the loss on the new release.

Check out the App Store on December 20th if youre interested - you can get that gamer in your life a nostalgic gift theyll enjoy... and if that gamer just happens to be you, so be it!

News Source: Phones Review and EGM Now

Analyst says Apple can sell as many as 10 million iPhone 5 in the first week

Apple is setting itself up for one of its best iPhone launch outings ever, and according to an analyst from Piper Jaffray, as many as 10 million iPhone 5s can fly off the shelves within the first week alone!

Recently, expectations for iPhone 5 first quarter sales were somewhere in the range of 22-23 million devices, but that number can bloom to around 30 million if what the analyst predicts hold true.

There will be an Apple press event on September 12 to announce something that’s “almost here.” So we will probably see soon enough whether or not the iPhone 5 will sell like grains during a famine.

If Apple’s track record means anything, then no one should really doubt that the iPhone 5 won’t have impressive sales within the first week. Last year, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S in just the first three days!

Apple is already one of the world’s most valuable companies, and if everything goes well for the firm in the coming months (especially with the iPad mini looming in the background) then we may witness the birth of the first company ever to reach the trillion dollar market cap.