TechPortal

The Internet search and advertising giant, whose shares have risen more than $100 in the last month, said net income in the third quarter surged 46 percent compared with the period a year earlier. Sales rose 57 percent, topping Wall Street’s already bullish forecasts.

The results show that Google is growing roughly twice as fast as the overall online advertising market, which itself is booming, and that it is expanding far more quickly than any large Internet company.

“It was a pretty good quarter,” said Douglas Anmuth, an analyst with Lehman Brothers. “The gap is widening as they continue to dramatically outperform competitors.” This week, Google’s rival Yahoo said its revenues had grown just 12 percent.

In a conference call with analysts, Google executives said the company’s business was strong in the United States and overseas.

“We are very pleased with such strong results in what is seasonally one of our weaker quarters,” said Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive. “It is obvious to us that our model continues to work very well.”

Google said its net income grew to $1.07 billion, or $3.38 a share, up from $733 million, or $2.36 a share, a year earlier. Net revenue rose to $4.23 billion. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, a widely followed measure of the company’s performance, revenue was $3.01 billion, about $70 million higher than analysts expected. Profit, excluding items like stock-based compensation, was $1.24 billion, or $3.91 a share, higher than the $3.78 a share forecast by analysts.

Surprisingly, Google, which this year had promised to slow its rate of hiring, in part to allay investor worries about rising expenses, added 2,130 employees this quarter, more than in previous quarters, to end the period with 15,916 employees.

Google executives said that about 1,000 of the new hires were recent college graduates, many of whom had accepted offers earlier in the year and began working in the quarter. About 300 more workers were added when Google completed the acquisition of the e-mail manager Postini.

“The numbers that you are seeing are essentially an overhang,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Going forward you should be comfortable that we are paying attention to the head count.”

That promise appeared to satisfy some analysts.

“Yes, they hired more people,” said Anthony Noto, an analyst with Goldman Sachs. But Mr. Noto said he was persuaded that any concerns about runaway growth had been put to rest.

Mr. Noto said Google executives seemed to calm worries about another possible expense: the $4.6 billion or more that Google said it might bid for a swath of wireless spectrum that the government is set to auction next year. Google had been lobbying regulators to set rules requiring any network that uses the spectrum to be open to any phone and any software application. The Federal Communications Commission adopted those rules, but they are being challenged in court by Verizon Wireless.

During the call, Larry Page, a Google founder, said the company was happy with the “openness provisions” that were put in place by the F.C.C.

“I don’t think we feel like there is any desperate need for us to have to bid to win,” he said. “The money is not burning a hole in our pocket.”

In an interview after the conference call, Mr. Schmidt said Google had not ruled out a bid, either alone or with a partner.

“In August, I said that we would probably bid,” he said. That has not changed, Mr. Schmidt said. Then he added: “‘Probably’ is not the same as ‘will.’”

Google’s financial report follows a period in which the company’s shares have risen sharply, to a record of $641.41 a week ago, as many investors expect the company’s core advertising business to remain strong.

Investors also believe that one or more of Google’s many new initiatives will soon begin to contribute more significantly to the company’s growth. And they expect that Google’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, if it is approved by regulators, will help it gain share in the market for online display advertising.

In recent weeks, Google stepped up its plans to sell ads on cellphones, and the company is expected to announce an operating system for mobile phones soon. Google also introduced two efforts intended to cash in on YouTube’s popularity. In September, it showed a type of online video ad that is overlaid on YouTube clips. This month it said it would use its advertising network to distribute YouTube clips that are surrounded with ads.

Google executives said several of its newer projects were doing well, including a deal to sell advertising on MySpace and a trial for customized television ads.

Google’s shares rose $6.14 yesterday to close at $639.62 in regular trading. They rose modestly in after-hours trading after the release of the earnings report.

Source : NYTimes.com

I’m beginning to think that besides search advertising, hiring is the thing Google does best.

On Thursday, the company reported gains of 50 percent or so in quarterly profit and revenue from a year ago, beating analyst expectations. It wasn’t a stellar quarter, but it was pretty darn good.

The notable thing was the hiring. The company added 2,130 workers to its roster, bringing the head count to 15,916. What do nearly 16,000 people do at a company that doesn’t make widgets (at least in the hardware manufacturing sense of the word)?

That’s an average of about 35 people showing up for their first day of work each business day during the past three months. Granted, that is in offices around the world, but still, that’s impressive. By comparison, Yahoo has 13,600 employees, after hiring 1,200 during the past quarter. (Actually, when you think about it, that’s even more crazy given the need for Yahoo to retrench right now.)

Those numbers may seem surprising given the fact that Google attributed last quarter’s 3-cent earnings miss to overspending on hiring, and promised to curb that impulse. However, during the conference call with analysts Thursday afternoon, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said many of the people hired during the quarter had been given offers before the previous quarter had closed.

The fast pace of hiring at the search giant is the one concern Jordan Rohan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, mentioned in an interview with CNET News.com after the Google earnings call.

“Half the company has been hired in the last 12 months. That’s chaotic,” he says. “The new employees find it difficult to figure out how to get things done. It’s not a normal company.”

I can only guess that the new hires are working on the much-anticipated “Google phone,” which is probably going to be a Google operating system for mobile devices, and on the new copyright content filtering technology deployed at YouTube this week. They’re also probably tasked with taking over the advertising world with the company’s lucrative online automated ad platform.

“They have possibly the best core business in the history of the Internet,” Rohan says. “That is supporting them as they attempt to find an Act II. I don’t know if it will be media, display, mobile or what.”

Source : CNET News.com

I don’t know if Linus Torvalds has nightmares about Linux turning into Windows but some people definitely do. Linux Doesn’t Need to Look Like Windows has been a popular and oft-visited article about Vixta on reddit since last week. It had spurred about 100 comments going back and forth about the merit of Vixta’s user interface design and whether Linux should look like Windows.

However, first things first. What’s Vixta? I hear you ask. Its developers describe and define its goals like so:

• Absolutely free, in every sense.

• ABN – Absolutely No Config.

• User-Friendly.

• Eye-catching.

• Familiar look and Feel.

It’s possible to say all that about Ubuntu too so why the kerfuffle? Well, Vixta copies Windows Vista’s start menu and the side bar. Actually, its whole look is pretty Vista-ish. Download a copy and check it out.

Some people, however, hate the fact that there is a Linux distro – Vixta is based on Fedora – which tries to mimic Vista’s look and feel. The author of the aforementioned Information Week article writes, “…I confess to having mixed feelings about the whole thing. Mostly negative ones.”

He then goes on to say, “Here’s the big reason I feel as uneasy as I do: it’s tantamount to an admission of defeat”. He concludes by writing that he wants to see more diversity among OSes and not less.

I don’t know about you but I can’t help but think that the author is overreacting. Sure, I agree that there should be a greater diversity among OSes but having Vixta adds to the diversity. There is no doubt in my mind that Vixta will continue to grow outside the Vista model that its developers started with.

Second, given that it was developed by just three programmers, it is nothing but a testament to the skill of these three individuals and the flexibility of Linux and KDE.

I’d hate to think that such lame articles may prevent developers from creating and experimenting out of fear of being labeled copy cats and unoriginal. I applaud the three developers of Vixta and want them to know that there are people who support them and appreciate their effort. We shall continue to watch this project.

Source : APCMag.com

A new online start-up with backing from the founders of YouTube and Sequoia Capital might just be the next big thing on the Internet. TokBox is a free service that lets you talk with your friends over live video through a web browser.

The idea is simple: millions of people now have web cams either built-in to their laptops, or connected to their desktops, and TokBox makes it easy to send a video message or video chat invitation via email.

Once your friend clicks the link and configures their camera, the video chat takes place within a web browser.

If your friend doesn’t have a web cam you can send them a video message that they can view at TokBox. Once you’ve set up your TokBox account, you can add friends from your AIM, MSN or Yahoo account, and ping them via IM when you want to video chat online.

TokBox also makes it easy to put TokBox on your social network profile, blog, or personal webpage. That means that anyone can come to your page and see a “Push to Talk” button. Personally, I find Facebook annoying enough without the video chat option – this feature obviously not aimed at me.

While video conferencing is already easy to configure with any number of stand-alone clients like Skype, MSN or iChat, there is something ingeniously simple about being able to do it within a web browser, with no software to be installed.

TokBox relies on Flash technology and while the quality of video and audio isn’t up to par with iChat or Skype, the company says that improvements will be made with the next release of Flash Player 9. Like all great plays on the Internet, TokBox hasn’t really got a strong revenue model yet, except the future promise of selling ads. But remember, neither did YouTube and they did OK.

In my brief play with the TokBox it worked well. I was able to send and receive Vmail messages, and perform a live chat with a friend (although the quality wasn’t very good).

The thing that struck me about TokBox is how quickly and easily I was up and running. And while lots of other sites promise ‘quick and easy’ not many deliver. Add ‘quick and easy’, ‘fun’ and ‘YouTube’ together and TokBox might just be the next big thing.

Source : APCMag.com

Oops: we did it again

Apple has confirmed plans to reduce the price on DRM-free music , but that’s resulted in the entire iTunes Plus store going temporarily offline while the prices are being altered.

Individual tracks from iTunes Plus — dominated by material from EMI, along with a handful of smaller independent labels — have dropped in price from $2.19 to $1.69, bringing them in line with songs that are encrypted to only play within iTunes or on iPods. (In the US, a similar reduction has seen prices fall from $US1.29 to $US0.99.)

While that might seem like an incentive to go on a track-purchasing bonanza, rolling those changes through what Apple describes as “the largest DRM-free catalog in the world” is apparently taking a little time.

Visitors to the Australian iTunes Store attempting to access the Plus section this morning were instead greeted with the error message: “Could not complete the iTunes Store request. The store may be busy.” Other sections of the store were functioning normally.
An Apple spokesperson confirmed that the problem was due to implementing the pricing changes. “The store is currently being updated and as it’s a global rollout this can take some time,,” a local representative told APC.

Creating price equivalence with encrypted music effectively means that there’s no incentive to purchase the DRM-loaded versions of tracks from EMI and the other participating labels. When the store originally launched iTunes Plus in June, the higher audio quality of the Plus tracks was used as a justification for the higher per-track pricing.

Despite the reductions, Apple has yet to reflect the increasing strength of the Australian dollar in its pricing model. The US 99 cent price for tracks would translate to around $1.12 in local currency — a far cry from the $1.69 Aussies currently pay.

Source : APCMag.com

Starting February, you’ll finally be able to call the iPhone a mobile computer.

Ever since Apple let the iPhone loose in late June, most of the criticism around the device (forget about AT&T and the price cut for now) has centered around the company’s decision to shut developers out of the iPhone’s early life on this planet. CEO Steve Jobs tried to assuage developers by reminding them that they could create Web applications for the iPhone, which is sort of like telling a teenager that no, you can’t have a car, but isn’t this the nicest bike you’ve ever seen?

But Jobs didn’t just roll into the Valley last year with $10 million in Series A funding. The PC and the Mac would have never changed our lives to the extent they have unless Microsoft and Apple allowed third-party application developers to create the myriad programs that simply couldn’t be envisioned or tackled by those two companies. It’s just not possible for one organization to envision everything that you or I might like to do with our computers.

In an inevitable move, Jobs revealed the plan for third-party iPhone applications on Wednesday. Come February, budding iPhone developers will be able to obtain a software development kit that will give them the tools and the know-how to create safe and reliable applications for the iPhone without having to depend on “jailbreak” programs. That means iPhone users will be able to add applications they can trust without voiding their warranties.

The only thing unexpected about this development is the timing. Some thought an SDK would arrive as early as this month, while others (including yours truly) didn’t expect Apple to provide an opening into the iPhone until next year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

The reason it’s taking so long, according to Apple, was that the company wanted to find a way to be as “open” as possible to third-party development while still keeping a lid on viruses and malware that could kill the iPhone before it gets off the ground. The iPhone runs OS X, which is essentially a derivative of Mac OS X with all the parts you don’t need on a phone stripped out to make the software smaller and easier on your battery. There are tested and proven Unix fundamentals at the core of OS X, but Apple apparently felt it couldn’t guarantee a reliable experience on the iPhone until it made sure that no security holes had been created in the development of the mobile operating system.

Apparently, that fear will be settled by February, when Apple will either ship OS X 2.0, borrow technology from Leopard to make the iPhone more stable, or both. Jobs hinted that developers will probably have to adhere to some sort of digital-signature architecture, similar to one Nokia has in place, to create working applications for the iPhone. We’ll have to see if that passes muster with the development community, although some developers seemed happy with the compromise between developer-signed applications and a locked iPhone. However, as we’ve followed, some people simply couldn’t wait to get started.

Almost immediately after iPhone Day, hackers got to work “jailbreaking” the iPhone, or opening it up so third-party applications could be developed and installed on the device. Dozens of small, useful applications sprung up overnight as enterprising developers came up with new ways to use the iPhone.

Apple is almost ready to let iPhone users add applications to that blank space beneath the Clock and Calendar buttons.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

The problem was Apple never authorized this, and actually said quite specifically in the iPhone’s user agreement that loading third-party applications onto the iPhone was a violation of that agreement and would void the warranty. It reinforced that notion with the now-infamous 1.1.1 software update, which wiped the iPhone clean of any third-party applications.

Outrage spewed forth onto the Internet, labeling Jobs and Apple as control freaks bent on infiltrating every portion of your computing life and stamping it with a once-bitten apple. As the always-entertaining Macalope put it today, “Well, NOW what is everybody going to complain about?”

This SDK will change the way people think about the iPhone. Research In Motion and Motorola will be able to port the BlackBerry and Good Mobile Messaging software to the iPhone, allowing secure access to corporate e-mail. Browser developers will be able to release products with Flash or Java support and really bring the full Internet to your pocket. And some independent developer toiling away in his or her basement on weekends will come up with a totally new application that takes advantage of the touch-screen interface to do something really cool, and start a business around that software.

One thing the SDK probably won’t support is unlocking, at least just yet. I e-mailed an Apple representative to ask that question, and haven’t heard back yet. But I can’t imagine that AT&T is ready to allow unlocking (not that they’d ever be if they really had a choice). Reports have put the exclusive contract between Apple and AT&T at anywhere from two years to five years, so it’s unlikely, but not impossible, that Apple will authorize iPhone unlocking with the SDK.

In many ways, that’s a shame. Someday we’ll look back on this era of carrier control as ridiculous: can you imagine if your cable or DSL provider currently dictated which PC you could buy, and if you then moved your PC to a part of the country or world where that service was unavailable and you couldn’t hook it up to the Internet? But it’s a classic dilemma between working for change within the system and revolution, and controlling entities with the power of wireless carriers tend to frown on revolutions.

Expect the underground hacking efforts to continue up to and past the point when Apple formally releases the SDK, as there will probably be demand for unlocked iPhones until the day Apple releases a version for other networks. Just as the company knew that one day it’d have to open up the iPhone to other applications, at some point it’s going to have to target the segment of the population that wants nothing to do with AT&T, O2, Orange and the other exclusive iPhone partners.

We’re not there yet. I’ve kept coming back to one thing as this whole outcry over the iPhone and third-party applications has unfolded: We, as a society, have the attention span of gnats. Not only do people want an iPhone, they want it to do everything they want it to do when they want it to do those things, and anything less than instant gratification is a slap in their faces by an evil overlord insisting there be no fun of any kind.

I know, I know; I’m only the 38 millionth curmudgeon to complain about that. But look, people: new eras of computing take time to evolve. It’s the 1980s all over again, only this time we can carry these things in our pockets. Real people, not just gadget freaks and productivity-obsessed managers, are starting to realize what they can do with the Internet and computing power anywhere at any time.

The iPhone may not be the device that gets us there, but it’s doing more to spark conversation and development toward that goal than anything else out there right now. Starting next year, it will get a whole lot more interesting, especially if Apple finally decides to install a nice, fat 3G pipe to the outside world.

Source : CNET News.com

After four years in the making, Windows XP Service Pack 3 is almost ready for release. We’ve taken an in-depth look at it — and one aspect of it jumps out as being particularly interesting: the ability to install XP without a serial number.

But first, a little background: Windows XP SP3 was recently released for public beta testing — “public” being Microsoft Connect and MSDN subscribers. As we’ve already seen, SP3 is really more of a Windows rollup, rather than a massive feature-enhancing package like SP2 was. However, it seems that SP3 does contain some new functionality:

• Descriptive Security Options UI – this makes the Security Centre a bit more intelligible and intuitive to try to prevent security problems caused by accidental misconfiguration
• Enhanced security for Administrator and Service policy entries – this is an enhancement to System Center Essentials, specifically for SP3
• Black Hole Router Detection – this detects routers which are silently discarding network packets, and is enabled by default in SP3
• Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module – this module (FIPS.SYS) is a FIPS 140-1 cryptographic module which runs as a kernel mode export driver
• Network Access Protection – the NAP Client is network-based policy enforcement platform currently running on Windows Vista and Windows 2008 (beta), and will now be available in XP SP3

Most interesting, though is this last feature:

• Windows Product Activation – this gives you the functionality to install Windows XP without having to enter the product key, as with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 SP2.

That is a really useful feature for testing Windows builds (unless you can memorise a 25-digit key) and will make life immeasurably easier for people who do system benchmarking, or set up systems for roadshows, and so on. Ever since Windows was created, it has been a pain in the ass to have to find the product key before the software can be installed. Nobody begrudges the need to put in a product key at some point soon after installation, and clearly Microsoft has heard the positive feedback from Vista’s keyless install process loud and clear.

There’s also some extra functionality which was previously available for Windows XP as separate downloads, and has now been bundled into the service pack:

• Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.5
• IPsec Simple Policy Update
• Microsoft Core XML Services 6.0
• Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0
• Digital Identity Management Service (DIMS)
• Peer Name Resolution Protocol 2.1
• Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) 2
• Windows Installer 3.1 v2

Being a major service pack, there’s a whole swathe of bundled security updates and hotfixes. The full list will keep changing as time goes on and the service pack draws nearer to final release, but at the current time there are 113 security updates and 958 hotfixes (that’s a LOT of hotfixes).

Windows XP SP3 beta

As with any beta, there are a few known bugs. What is important to know is that users of Windows Embedded, Windows Embedded for PoS, Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, Windows Media Center 2005 or Windows XP Starter Edition shouldn’t install the beta. There are certain problems with all those operating systems which won’t be resolved in the beta. Windows XP Home and Professional users are safe to install the beta.

At present, SP3 beta is only available for 32-bit platforms (for English, Japanese and German editions) and the download weighs in at 335MB. Compared with 266MB for the 32-bit version of Windows XP SP2, in spite of not including as many new features, SP3 is clearly a substantial upgrade. At present there’s no integrated media available for download, and if Microsoft follows anticipated procedure, integrated media will be available only to Volume License and MSDN customers. For everyone else, slipstreaming is the way to go.

XP SP3 still doesn’t have a final release date, but is anticipated to be in the first half of 2008, so it may or may be out at the same time as Vista SP1, which is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2008.

Source : APCMag.com

The notMac challenge to create a free replacement to .Mac has concluded with Ben Spink claiming the $8622 prize. notMac, now available for download, is a free replacement for Apple’s expensive .Mac solution that provides similar functionality and is easy enough for a first-time Mac user to install and integrate.

While notMac sounds great on paper, in reality it isn’t even close to being as simple as .Mac. In fact, to use notMac you’ll need to have your own server running OS X (or OS X server) and have a pretty robust understanding of networking and IP configuration. If that sounds OK then installing notMac should proceed smoothly.

On the client side you’re also going to need to install the client version of notMac and point it to the IP address of the notMac server. Installation effectively replaces your .Mac preference pane with the new notMac preference pane which is where you configure your notMac settings. Once you’ve completed these steps you should be able to use your own notMac server for iDisk access. If you’re installation goes off the rails, you can always uninstall with the provided uninstaller script.

As you can see while notMac is a step in the right direction its far from being easy and seamless in the way that Mac users expect. For instance, there is NO WAY my mum would ever use it, and she uses .Mac everyday. Sadly, it also doesn’t duplicate a lot of useful .Mac functionality like webmail and contact syncing among others. It’s also worth noting that .Mac users gets Backup, Apple’s backup client that is still the easiest way to backup your Mac and one of the main selling points for .Mac.

While competitions like this prove that the Apple developer community is vibrant, creative and innovative, it also demonstrates that serious R&D dollars are required to implement a service like .Mac and make it succeed. While notMac is a good first attempt, it’s not ready for prime time, and certainly not ready for a ‘first-time’ Mac user.

Source : APCMag.com

Apple today announced that Leopard, and Leopard Server, its next generation operating system is finally going public on October 26 at 6pm. If you’re keen to get it on Friday you’ll be able to pick it up from Apple authorised resellers, or you can order online now, for estimated delivery on the 26th.

Leopard will cost $158 (inc. GST) for a single user license. The Leopard Family Pack is a single residence, five-user license that will be available for $249 inc GST. If you’ve just bought a Mac (after 1 October) you’ll be eligible for the Mac OS Up-To-Date upgrade package for a shipping and handling fee of A$12.95 inc GST. Leopard server will be $598 inc GST for a 10-client edition and $1199 inc GST for an unlimited-client edition.

If you want to run Leopard you’ll need a minimum of 512MB of RAM and any Mac with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 (867 Mhz or faster) processor. Full system requirements can be found here. If you want to run the server version you’ll need 1GB of RAM and at least 20GB free disk space.

Poking fun at the various, confusing different versions of Windows Vista, Steve Jobs said that Leopard was the ‘best upgrade’ Apple had ever released, and “everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version.

Apple has had developer betas of Leopard out now for some time , so there isn’t much we don’t know about it but here is a recap from Apple’s press release:

Leopard’s new desktop includes the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks, a new way to organise files for quick and easy access with just one click. Leopard automatically places web, email and other downloads in a Downloads stack to maintain a clutter-free desktop, and users can instantly fan the contents of this and other Stacks into an elegant arc right from the Dock. Users can also create their own Stacks for quick access to folders, documents or applications. Leopard’s gorgeous new look extends to all applications, with every window on the desktop offering a consistent design theme and active windows outlined by deeper shadows that make them stand out.

The updated Finder includes Cover Flow and a new sidebar with a dramatically simplified way to search for, browse and copy content from any PC or Mac on a local network. Content on any computer on a local network can now be searched using Spotlight, browsed using Cover Flow or copied across the network with a simple drag and drop. .Mac members can use the new Back to My Mac feature to browse and access files on their remote Macs over the Internet.

Quick Look is the fastest and easiest way for users to look inside files without launching them or even having the application that created them. With Quick Look, users can instantly view full-screen, high-resolution files of virtually anything, even media files, from any view in the Finder.

Spaces gives users a powerful new way to organise their work by creating customised desktops which can contain only those applications or documents needed for each project, with the ability to quickly switch between Spaces with the mouse or keyboard.

Time Machine lets users easily back up all of the data on their Mac, find lost files and even restore all of the software on their Mac. With just a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac.* In the event a file is lost, users can search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then instantly restore the file. If it’s ever necessary, Leopard can also easily restore an entire system from the Time Machine data on an external drive.

Mail has been updated in Leopard and features more than 30 stationery designs and layouts that look great on a Windows PC or Mac so users can easily send stylish, personalised emails with beautiful graphics and photos. Notes and To Dos help users stay organised by acting just like emails that can be easily created, saved as drafts, synced across multiple Macs and stored in Smart Mailboxes. Data detectors automatically sense phone numbers, addresses and events so they can be added to Address Book oriCal with just a few clicks, and users can keep up-to-date by getting the latest news and blog feeds delivered directly to their mailboxes with a built-inRSS reader.

iChat, the easiest-to-use video conferencing application on any personal computer, offers even richer video chats in Leopard with iChat Theater, which makes it easy to show photos, presentations, videos or files in a video conference; screen sharing which lets users remotely view and operate another Mac; and Photo Booth effects for fun distortions and video backdrops that can instantly make users appear to be anywhere they choose.

If that doesn’t sound like $158 worth of value check out this list which features all 300 new features. With the installed Mac user base growing at an impressive rate, it’s likely Mac OS X Leopard will be the highest-selling Mac OS release in Apple’s history.

Source : APCMag.com

Call it the tank. Call it the Godzilla of notebooks. Whatever you call it, Pioneer is raising eyebrows with its new Quad Core DreamBook Power D90 SLI. It tips the scales at 5.4KG.Pioneer’s billing it as the “world’s fastest notebook”, claiming they’ve cracked the 10,000 mark in the benchmark 3DMark06.

We’ve yet to verify this ourselves, and rest assured we will, but in the meantime the specs are enough entertainment.

As well as a Quad Core CPU (Core 2 Quad Q7600), there are dual nVidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX video cards (2×512MB DDR3) in SLI configuration, 4GB RAM, and four 200GB Serial ATA Hard Drives. We admire Pioneer’s commitment to adequate storage, but 800GB of space in a notebook?

Total price quoted to APC is $7,501 – one of the most expensive prices we’ve seen quoted in a system for quite some time.

Here’s a sampling of what you get:

• Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q7600
• 17″ Widescreen WUXGA+ (1920×1200) TFT Screen
• Dual nVidia SLI GeForce Go 7950 GTX 2×512MB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics
• 4GB (2 x 2GB) 667MHz DDR2 RAM
• 200GB 7,200RPM Serial-ATA
• 200GB 7,200RPM Serial-ATA
• 200GB 7,200RPM Serial-ATA
• 200GB 7,200RPM Serial-ATA
• Built-in Digital TV Tuner Mini PCI

Expect more once we’ve run the benchmarks.

Yes, those are four fans