| Semiconductor industry hits record sales of $255.6 billion
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported $255.6 billion in global semiconductor sales for 2007. Revenues were up 3.2% from $247.7 billion in 2006.The industry association said that major drivers for chip sales remained personal computers, mobile handsets, and consumer electronics. PC shipments were up 13.8%, cellphone shipments were up 20% and MP3/PMP player as well as digital camera shipments increased by about 20%, while LCD TVs gained about 50% in 2007, the SIA said.Memory devices, including DRAM and NAND flash, saw "strong pricing pressures" and average selling prices (ASPs) for both DRAMs and NAND flash declined. Total bit shipments for DRAMs nearly doubled in 2007, but total revenues declined by 7.4% due to a 39% decline in ASPs. NAND flash revenues were up 26% but unit shipments grew even faster at nearly 46%, the SIA said.
Mobile World Congress--Take That, Apple!
If press conferences from Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung are any indication, it's that Apple's one-size fits all approach to the market with its popular iPhone is doomed to failure. Executives at the major phone makers made absolutely no mention of Apple in their speeches, but they clearly appeared to be moving to address the perceived gap in lovability between their phones and the iPhone. Nokia and Samsung had nearly identical mesages, suggesting that they alone were capable of producing a mobile phone for every lifestyle—including all you old-timers who (shudder) simply want a phone to make calls. On the high end where they currently are competing with Apple for mindshare and marketshare, the phone makers opted mainly for evolutionary updates on existing models. Nokia's new dual-band HSDPA N96, for instance, doubles internal memory to 16GB from the N95, while adding LED lights to the 5 megapixel digital camera for flash and video lighting.
Takahashi: Dress this cell phone according to mood
Dov Moran has a bright idea for the coming age where fashion and electronics will become intertwined. When you want a new look for an MP3 music player, put a new skin on it. If you want your phone to play cool videos, give it a jacket. And when you want to turn that phone into an alarm clock, find it a mate. Moran is chief executive of modu, an Israeli company that has created a tiny cell phone with a built-in flash memory music player that is highly modular. When you want to change the look and feel of the device, you simply slide it into another device. It's like adding a memory chip card, except it changes the identity of the new device. With it, you can change your electronic gear in chameleon fashion to suit your mood. You can, for instance, take your little modu phone and slide it into a digital camera.
Xacti HD1a HD camcorder adds wide display, more
Sanyo on Thursday introduced the Xacti HD1a, a compact digital media camera that records both still pictures and digital video. It does it all onto an SD flash memory card. The Xacti HD1a is coming in September for $699.99. The Xacti HD1a records video in 720p and grabs 5.1 megapixel still images. Because it uses SD cards instead of bulky tapes or optical media, it's much more compact than other camcorders. It uses a 10x optical zoom lens and 2.2-inch LCD display. New features in the HD1a include a 16:9 widescreen still picture mode, in-camera video editing, a 30 frames-per-second 320 x 240 MPEG-4 pixel video recording mode called “Web-SHQ," optimized for the video iPod. The 16:9 still image mode grabs 3.8 megapixel images in the same wide-screen format as the Xacti HD1's digital videos.
Okoker Removable Data Recovery 4.5
Okoker Removable Data Recovery is a data recovery tool utility, designed to recover all the deleted files and directories. It allows you to recover files that have been deleted from USB Driver, Digital camera, DV, iPod. It will help you to recover data residing on removable disks formatted in any of the following file systems: FAT 12/16/32,scan and recover all the lost data from your computer system, DV, digital camera, SD/miniSD/microSD card, MMC/RS-MMC card, xD-Picture card and µ card.,USB drives, ZIP disks, CompactFlash cards, SmartMedia, and Memory Sticks. Specific recovery support for 500 file types, including: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, IncrediMail, databases, AutoCAD, Microsoft Money, SQL, MYOB, photos, MPEG, AVI, WMV, WAV and MP3 files. Version 4.5 is a bug fixing release.
Small, wearable cameras could help keep an eye on cops
As leaders in Seattle and elsewhere call for stronger police accountability, three former Seattle officers hope to cash in on that movement with an action cam for police. The officers' fledgling company, VIEVU, has developed a small, wireless digital camera that could be a tool to record officers' interactions during an arrest or traffic stop. The camera is lightweight, about the size of a pager, and waterproof -- the latter feature being something that officers on Seattle's rainy beat know is paramount, said Chris Myers, who ended his 18-year police career in January to join VIEVU. The PVR-LE easily clips onto an officer's lapel or belt. Four gigabytes of flash memory record up to four hours of video. If someone accuses an officer of wrongdoing, the camera should reveal the truth.
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