Justin Rattner, Intel's Chief Technology Officer has said this week that power usage in the company's next-generation wireless chip will equal processors created by rival ARM Holdings, with Intel pulling away with the generation after that.

Says Rattner (via Reuters): "With (our) Moorestown processor we equal them on standby power, in the next generation Medfield we will equal them on active power."

"I expect us to just pull away after that because we have a fundamental technology advantage, which they don't have."

Current Intel chips have been deemed "too power-hungry" for media devices and smartphones, especially when compared to ARM chips.

Battery life is a make-or-break metric, especially in media players and smartphones.

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The MPEG-LA video standards group has revealed their overhauled AVC License this week, and in a somewhat surprising move, the group has made H.264 and AVC video use on the Internet permanently royalty-free.

MPEG-LA had planned to begin charging companies to use streaming H.264 in 2016 but now it will be free indefinitely as long as the viewers aren't being charged.

Pay-for video, and corporate use, will require a license, which costs money.

H.264 is now effectively available for HTML5 video, as well as for use within Flash containers.

Google created the WebM standard to rival H.264, although most of its advantages are negated now, since both will be free and offer similar perks.

MPEG-LA says that WebM violates patents and that users may eventually be forced to pay in the long term.

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Showing it off at the Hot Chips conference this week, IBM has set the record for CPU with highest clock-speed, running the quad-core z196 at 5.2GHz.

IBM took the crown from itself, besting the 4.7GHz hit by their Power6 CPU.

The latest chip has 1.4 billion transistors on a 512mm2 board made with a 45nm manufacturing-process. The Power6 CPUs had 1.1 billion transistors.

Hexus says "each core has been given 1.5MB private L2 cache as well as access to 24MB shared L3 eDRAM cache. Somewhat uniquely, the z196 also has access to a fourth layer of cache off-chip. Six of these CPUs can be installed into a multi-chip module (MCM) and will connect to each other through two controllers with a total of 192MB shared L4 cache via a 40GB per second link."

Because the processors are so fast, the added level of memory is a necessity, just to make sure data runs smoothly.

The chips also feature a CISC-based z/Architecture, moving away from the more common RISC ISA.

IBM says the z196 will be built into the company's Z-series mainframes, and should begin shipping next month.

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Panasonic Japan has shown off six new Blu-ray DVRs this week, each with BDXL-support, meaning they can playback and record to the new three-layer, 100GB discs introduced in July.

Each of the models come with HDDs and Blu-ray recorders, and will support the larger disc capacities.

Three of the new players even include 3D-support, the latest trend in the industry.

The DMR-BW series does not have 3D support, and the most expensive model has 1TB of HDD space on-board and comes with two digital TV tuners. That model retails for $1780.

Adding 3D support and another TB of HDD space, the DMR-BWT series' most expensive model will retail for $3300.

Although there are no plans for an EU or NA launch, Panasonic will begin selling all 6 models in Japan on September 15th.

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During an interview with MCV, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai ruled out an all-digital future, at least for the PlayStation 4, saying the console will still use optical media.

Sony was generally criticized for launching the PSPGo handheld, which removed the company's proprietary UMD drives, and turned everything digital, forcing gamers to purchase and download their games through the PlayStation Store.

When asked if the PS4 would use a similar strategy, Hirai responded: "We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope. There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium."

"To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme."

Earlier in the month, it was revealed that Sony is already preparing games for the upcoming PlayStation 4, the console which has not even been announced yet.

Many expect a 2012 launch date for the next-gen console.

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Following in the footsteps of the Droid X, which was rooted within a week of launch, the XDA Dev team has announced they have rooted the Motorola Droid 2, just 14 days after its launch.

The initial rooting method is not easy, however, and will require decent background with ADB.

For more info on ADB, check here: ABD Wiki page.

After the device is rooted, users can then install custom ROMs, as well as have access to Superuser controls.

For now, there are not custom recovery images for the Droid 2, so installing a custom ROM is impossible.

Says a XDA Dev member: "This is needed to install custom ROMs, which as of now, there are none. That means you won't be able to install any third-party Android ROMs on your rooted Droid 2. [Yes], they will be on their way at some point, but right now, the main appeal to rooting the Droid 2 right now is to use root-only applications, and remove the bloatware that Verizon has thrown on the device."

If you are interested, you can view the full instructions here: Root the Moto Droid 2

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Social networking juggernaut Facebook is suing a new website called Teachbook, which is designed to help teachers, administrators & parents share classroom resources with each other.

The suit alleges, "Misappropriating the distinctive BOOK portion of Facebook's trademark, Defendant has created its own competing online networking community in a blatant attempt to become Facebook "for Teachers.""

Facebook's lawyers are claiming that using the name Teachbook is intended to (and would) confuse people into believing the site is associated with Facebook.

While there's certainly truth to the claim that the use of "book" in Teachbook's name is intended to let people know it's a social networking site, it doesn't automatically follow that people will assume an affilliation with Facebook.

In fact it seems like an equally valid argument that the average person would assume the name implies Teachbook is an alternative to Facebook, and therefore not affiliated.

There certainly don't seem to be any similarities between the logos or actual websites.

Click image for larger view

Even if they win, this seems like a losing proposition for Facebook - at least when it comes to competing with Teachbook.

Teachers are somewhat unique in the world of social networking. Many are hesitant to use services like Facebook because they worry about how it will make them look to administrators, parents & even students.

Teachbook potentially offers them a place where they can interact with other teachers, school staff & parents without the stigma attached to other social networking tools.

But in order to do that they first need to attract the attention of educators. By suing, Facebook has likely given them a good head start in that area.

Instead of relying on word of mouth, they now have major media outlets around the world talking about their service.

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Gmail users in the US can now use the Voice & Video Chat service to make phone calls. The new service is accessed directly through Gmail's Chat interface.

If you have a Google Voice account, the associated phone number will be used for outbound calls. You can also forward calls from Google Voice to Google Voice & Video Chat.

The included call screening feature even allows Google Voice users to listen to callers as they leave messages.

Currently calls to US numbers are free, while there is a charge for calling internationally which varies depending on the country.

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The long awaited Netflix Watch Instantly client for the iPhone and iPod Touch has finally arrived.

Netflix announced the availability of their free iPhone app in the iTunes App Store today. It requires iOS 3.13 or later.

The Watch Instantly service already allowed Netflix subscribers to stream video directly to devices including computers, Blu-ray players, HDTVs & game consoles. An iPad app has also been available since April of this year when the device launched.

A client for Android devices is also in development.

"We're excited that our members can now carry Netflix around in their pockets and instantly watch movies and TV shows streamed from Netflix right to their iPhone or iPod touch" said Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings.

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