InfoWorld Hardware

An Apple online store is set to take preorders of new Xserve servers carrying Intel#39;s new Xeon chips, hinting at launch of the devices in the near future.

The high-stakes, but still under-the covers battle by IBM to take over Sun Microsystems is still in play, but IBM may be rethinking what it is willing to pay for the enterprise vendor.

Dell on Thursday introduced small-business laptops that will be free of bloatware, which could help improve system performance and protect storage space.

Palm is taking what it hopes is the next step in to make its Palm Pre a viable iPhone competitor. On Wednesday, at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Palm opened up its Mojo Software Development Kit (SDK) program to a quot;broad group of developers.quot;

Reducing the number of mobile software platforms, but not by too much, is the key to unleashing pent up creativity in the mobile market, executives said on Wednesday.

The success of Intel#39;s Atom microprocessor, used mainly in netbooks, helped the chipmaker gain market share in every quarter of 2008 and could carry the company this year as well.

Satellite launches are a noisy affair especially for the satellite atop the rocket. Vibration and noise, unless compensated, could render it useless before it reaches orbit so researchers spend a lot of time on complex computer simulations that help them insulate the delicate craft. Now those simulations are about to get much more accurate thanks to a new supercomputer that began work this week in Japan.

Long-life batteries from Dell and HP can keep laptops running for as many as 20 hours at a stretch. But you don't need a powerful external battery to get more use out of your current battery. There are several things you can do now to extract precious additional minutes from the basic six-cell battery found in most laptops.

Many competing factors enter into the choice of a specific laptop: weight, size, price, battery life, expandability, and so on. Of these, battery life is rarely a primary concern until the system is actually purchased. The unspoken expectation is that standard batteries will get 3 to 4 hours of useful life from a single charge, while batteries with more cells can add a couple of hours of working time to this number.

What was billed as a roundtable discussion for members of the new Symbian Foundation turned into an opportunity for them to lay out the challenges and threats to their fledgling group.

Rackable Systems said Wednesday it plans to buy the assets of bankrupt SGI (Silicon Graphics) for roughly $25 million in cash, and will also assume certain liabilities.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=a31af7fa376bb7e891a9cdf1eab29ccep=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=a31af7fa376bb7e891a9cdf1eab29ccep=1//a

Forrester Research is now predicting that U.S. IT spending will drop by 3.1 percent this year, shattering its previous projection of a 1.6 percent increase.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=22696522c23670a9989fd273807ed5eap=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=22696522c23670a9989fd273807ed5eap=1//a

Alcatel-Lucent on Wednesday was set to introduce its Evolved Packet Core (EPC), a set of network components that will help to power the LTE network of Verizon Wireless and other mobile operators.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ hr / div style=font-size:xx-small;color:gray;padding-bottom:.5emPresented By:/div diva href=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=camp;i=c49ca094f019c4a2702c9fa9c7dec949amp;p=1Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p/a/div table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 trtd valign=topembed src=http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/17831997001?isVid=1publisherID=1660622131 bgcolor=#FFFFFF flashVars=@videoPlayer=17854499001playerID=17831997001domain=embed base=http://admin.brightcove.com name=flashObj width=300 height=250 seamlesstabbing=false type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowFullScreen=true swLiveConnect=true allowScriptAccess=always pluginspage=http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash/embedbr /br /img src=http://images.pheedo.com/g/ngc_bluewhale/brand_logo_80x60.pngbr /font size=2 face=tahoma Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo br //fonta href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?a=v3%3Aa271cee67dfff482f0d65fb1ab2dbeb4%3AMr%2Bh0MpnVRLPNJdcAt9CNC9V4bldEKN7LJct7xOR4Qasw2TqiPSywbekHkNSMJBXoLLTgxjqJ6GFDjQrWKxDTti%2BExxPSgB53ImQxT%2Fv%2F65baGhOO2fHMoDRL2wRGFtyEd9rjTRarteEV4MpZVASTMH%2BQlzbT04u%2FQ%3D%3Dtarget=_blankfont size=2 font color=007DC3 face=tahoma Unatgeotv.com/guantanamoU/font/a/td/tr trtdnbsp;/td/tr /table div style=font-size:xx-small; padding-top: 1em;span style=border-top: 1px solid br style=display:none/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/Ads by Pheedo/a /spanimg alt= style=border: 0; height: 1px; width: 1px; border=0 height=1 width=1 src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=vamp;i=c49ca094f019c4a2702c9fa9c7dec949amp;p=1/ br/ /div

Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday said it would release quot;very low-powerquot; Shanghai processors within three months, a move that could intensify its ongoing chip battle with rival Intel.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=b23a2a8da6cde1a77bdfb158134d9631p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=b23a2a8da6cde1a77bdfb158134d9631p=1//a

Hewlett-Packard confirmed Tuesday that it is testing Google#39;s Android operating system as a possible alternative to Windows in some of its netbook computers.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=bf67cdd182788a17ed8b275aa832fd96p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=bf67cdd182788a17ed8b275aa832fd96p=1//a

Global IT spending is expected to decline nearly 4 percent#160;in 2009 over the previous year as industry watchers confirm the current recession will see more losses than the dot-com bust in 2001, Gartner reports.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=67407c0a3d6fce972646ade3d2d9739ep=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=67407c0a3d6fce972646ade3d2d9739ep=1//a

A developer is reporting that Google has banned his tethering application from the Android Market, one of the first hints that the store may not be as open as Google has promised.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=fa9c257366e072202f5d755157f51820p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=fa9c257366e072202f5d755157f51820p=1//a

Motorola has announced its latest offering the Evoke QA4 -- a touch-screen cell phone which represents the company#39;s second attempt at offering an iPhone-like handset.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=ea68fa1b930327ad9d2b0e4e4a73e2b4p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=ea68fa1b930327ad9d2b0e4e4a73e2b4p=1//a

Microsoft#160;and Intel#39;s attempts to confine netbooks to the low end of the market to protect mainstream notebook PC sales have taken another hit.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=76fb445803f39b498dc0d0d78cef60f4p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=76fb445803f39b498dc0d0d78cef60f4p=1//a

The world#39;s top server vendors on Monday updated their product lines, launching new servers to coincide with the release of#160;Intel#39;s next-generation Xeon processors.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=4c9612b58594b9c78cb365f00928ae75p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=4c9612b58594b9c78cb365f00928ae75p=1//a