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End of Intel, AMD duopoly near? Via readies Isaiah chip

Brooke Crothers — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:15:00 GMT

Is the end of the Intel-AMD duopoly nigh? Via Technologies is hoping this may be the case when it announces the "Isaiah" processor later this month.

Via Isaiah processor is targeted at mainstream notebooks and desktops; top: Isaiah processor; bottom: $398 15-inch Everex gBook

(Credit: Via, Wal-Mart)

The company's ...

Google Translate speaks 10 new languages

Stephen Shankland — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:17:00 GMT

Google Translate just got more useful for a Prague citizen visiting India.

The online translation function now can understand 10 more languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, and Swedish. That brings the total to 23 languages, Google said in a blog posting Thursday.

In addition, Google ...

Yahoo investors begin to weigh in on Icahn proxy fight

Dawn Kawamoto — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:03:00 GMT

A major Yahoo investor weighed in late Wednesday with support for Carl Icahn's initiative to unseat Yahoo's board, signaling yet another salvo to be fired in the coming weeks as the proxy fight between Icahn and Yahoo heats up.

Paulson & Co., which owns 50 million Yahoo shares ...

Hacker confab 'Last HOPE' to track attendees with RFID

Elinor Mills — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:02:00 GMT

People attending the Last HOPE hacker conference in New York City this July will be getting more than just an agenda and badge when they check in.

(Credit: The Last Hope)

The badges will have electronic tracking devices, using radio frequency identification technology, that will be tracking their movements throughout ...

Can the Feds enforce Net neutrality? Maybe not

Anne Broache — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:40:00 GMT

WASHINGTON--Federal regulators may be probing Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent filesharing traffic, but can they actually take action, if they choose, against the company or any other broadband provider on Net neutrality grounds?

The answer may not be simple. And if the FCC and other regulators are really powerless--in other ...

Study: Cox blocking BitTorrent traffic, too

Tom Krazit — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:27:00 GMT

Cox is the latest Internet service provider to have been found blocking peer-to-peer traffic on its network.

The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems released a survey Thursday showing that 54 percent of Cox subscribers reported having their connections blocked when they tried to share files over the Internet. Comcast has been castigated for a similar practice, ...

Google surpasses Yahoo--for a second time?

Stephen Shankland — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:50:00 GMT

Google passed Yahoo in its share of monthly visitors in the United States for the first time this April, buoyed by growth in search and YouTube videos, according to ComScore statistics released Thursday.

However, underscoring the variability of this sort of measurement, which extrapolates overall data from the usage of ...

Apple dismisses Safari vulnerability

Elinor Mills — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:32:00 GMT

Safari users are at risk of littering their desktops with malicious software because the browser does not ask for user permission when downloading files in the way that Firefox and Internet Explorer do, a security researcher said Thursday.

In a blog post titled "Safari Carpet Bomb," Nitesh Dhanjani describes how ...

Google gathers 3D data with Street View

Stephen Shankland — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:57:00 GMT

Google confirmed today it's gathering 3D data along with the photographs it takes for its online Street View service, a potential boon for those of us who fantasize about flying like Superman through urban landscapes, at least virtually.

"The imaging technology includes lasers that collect 3D geometry data," the ...

Amazon invests in Animoto

Elinor Mills — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:53:00 GMT

Amazon has invested an undisclosed amount in Animoto, a site that enables people to easily create videos from their photos and music.

(Credit: Animoto)

This is the first big investor for Animoto. Previous funding has come from friends and family.

Animoto.com, which launched in August, has more than 160,

...