Articles by Walaika Haskins

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer revealed on Tuesday a few details on the software company's next operating system, Windows 7, at the D: All Things Digital conference in San Diego. The company has maintained a disciplined silence about the upcoming OS -- a marked contrast to the constantly changing plethora of information releas...

Chipmaker Via Technologies took the wrapper of its OpenBook Mini-Note reference design Tuesday, making the blueprint for its latest ultra mobile PC (UMPC) available to anyone who wants to manufacture low-cost computers based on Via's line of low-power processors The open source, computer-assisted design (CAD) files are available for free here under...

Technology moves at a lightning-fast pace. A brand new desktop computer has an average lifespan of two to five years, after which both its hardware and its software have become obsolete. For businesses and other organizations, this poses a significant challenge as they attempt to keep their IT purchasing budgets down while simultaneously trying to keep their infrastructures up to date...

Samsung unveiled a new, high-capacity solid state drive (SSD) Monday at the fifth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei. The 2.5-inch, 256 gigabyte (GB), multi-level cell (MLC)-based SSD uses a SATA II interface, and it's the world's fastest SSD, according to the company.

EMC announced a new line of deduplicating backup storage products this week at its annual EMC World conference held in Las Vegas In addition to deduplication, the new offerings include disk drive spin down and low-power disk drive technologies, all of which are meant to lower the cost for businesses to use disk-based backups rather than tape....

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), the organization focused on bringing low-cost laptops to children in developing nations, announced it intends to release a newly redesigned version of the XO notebook, the XO-2, in 2010. The second generation of the XO will include new technology to meet OLPC's goal of advancing new concepts of learning, lowering power...

Greenpeace International has taken video game console makers to task for using hazardous materials in the devices, releasing a detailed report Tuesday. Test results in the "Playing Dirty" report indicated that Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have moved away from or limited their usage of individual toxic compounds in certain materials in the consoles...

Google launched the beta version of its Google Health personal health records aggregator Monday. The service, according to Google, will put users in control of their own medical records, giving them 24-hour-a-day access to their health records from a variety of sources With the introduction of Google Health, the search giant joins other Internet co...

Nintendo's Wii Fit came to the U.S. on Monday. Wii Fit is a game and accompanying controller for the popular Wii video game system that enables the user to play games focused on exercise and use their feet to control it The new offering is an extension of what has made the Wii so popular among mainstream gamers -- getting folks up and moving....

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced an initiative designed to give gamers a clearer picture of what systems will and will not match their needs when buying a PC Nearly 66 percent of PCs sold in 2007 included only the bare minimum of functionality, according to findings from Jon Peddie Research. These systems did not have the abilit...

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project and Microsoft have come together to make the software company's Windows XP operating system available on the OLPC's low-cost laptops, the XO. Sugar, a Linux-based user interface, will also be offered on XO computers Although OLPC had hoped to ship millions of the low-cost computers to schoolchildren in develo...

Two and a half years after its launch, the Xbox 360 has sold its 10 millionth unit in the U.S., making it the first console of its generation to reach that milestone, according to Microsoft. Worldwide, consumers have purchased a total of 19 million Xbox 360s "The 360 milestone is significant in that their push to release the current Xbox console a ...

Perhaps you know at least one person who totes around one or more devices to ensure an almost constant connection to the office and friends. They answer their phones during dinner at a restaurant or turn away from a movie to read their latest text. Perhaps you are that person Those individuals are part of a growing population, according to IDC and ...

A growing number of households in the U.S. are hanging up their landline phones, opting instead to use cell phones exclusively, according to a Wednesday report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) The six-month survey, conducted from July 2007 to December 2007, found that 22.3 percent of households with both landline and mobile...

Dell has reportedly decided to scrub several models in its high-end line of XPS PCs. The computer maker is turning away from the XPS machines to limit competition with its Alienware systems, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Dell acquired Alienware back in March 2006 but allowed the gaming PC maker to continue to operate independentl...

Star gazers and astronomers now have a powerful new tool that will allow them to surf the skies from their desktop. Microsoft unveiled the public beta of its WorldWide Telescope (WWT) Web application Monday. The software creates an experience that users of all ages will find captivating, said Frank Reddy, a senior editor at Astronomy Magazine....

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) introduced its new high-end handset Monday, the BlackBerry 9000, a.k.a. "Bold." Aimed at business pros and power users, Bold updates the product line with a device aimed at taking on Apple's iPhone. It's the first new model from RIM in over a year "They're really just trying to take the BlackBerry franchise...

Shortly following Microsoft's release of the third service pack for its Windows XP operating system, reports of problems regarding the SP's installation began appearing on blogs and the Windows XP Newsgroup XP users have experienced an assortment of issues both with the installation itself and after the installation, ranging from failed and frozen ...

Long before social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook set up shop online, there was a social element to playing video games. Gamers have always congregated together, extolling or deriding the merits of one game over another, participating in tournaments and broadcasting their gaming exploits and accomplishments However, the flap that eru...

Verizon announced the latest addition to its line of touch-screen mobile phones Thursday. The Glyde from Samsung, available Friday, offers many features that have gained popularity following the introduction of Apple's iPhone The Glyde joins the LG Voyager and Venus and the Samsung Instinct in a growing list of handsets with more user-friendly touc...