Nokia lays out serious risks in Microsoft deal

In a government filing, Nokia describes the many threats it faces as part of its agreement to use Windows Phone

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Nokia laid out the threats it faces as part of its planned deal with Microsoft.

There are many, according to Nokia. Some have already been identified by critics of the agreement, under which Nokia will phase out use of its Symbian operating system in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone software. Publicly held companies routinely disclose all the possible risks of their businesses to shareholders.

Making Steve Jobs Immortal

Last week, I tried to come up with some epic things I would like to think I'd do were I given six weeks to live -- a rumor that's been floating around about Steve Jobs -- and was as insanely wealthy as he is. The purpose was to focus on something other than the end we will all eventually share.

One of the folks commenting on the piece thought I should have instead focused on things Jobs could do that would be more meaningful, and the comment hit a chord. So I'll continue this topic but now suggest some things Steve Jobs could do that would help make him virtually immortal.

I'll close with my product of the week: a laptop that likely is the closest to an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) product sold into business by a company that isn't Apple -- the new ThinkPad T420, akey part of Lenovo's new business line.

Leading Hard Drive Makers to Support Intel Thunderbolt.

Two leading makers of hard disk drives - Seagate Technology and Western Digital - said on Thursday that they would support the new interconnect technology unveiled by Intel Corp., the Thunderbolt. Both companies aim to provide solutions supporting the TB I/O tech in calendar 2011.

"Seagate will support Thunderbolt with our external GoFlex drives with in calendar year 2011," said Nathan Papadopulos, senior manager of corporate communications at Seagate.

Seagate was not among the companies, who openly supported the standard with Intel, Apple, WD and others. This fact makes the announcement even more important.

AirpenPocket - Digital Pen that Wirelessly Sends Written Text to a PC

A digital pen called airpenPocket is going to be launched soon by Pentel Co Ltd, a Japanese company that focuses on the production on stationery and writing instruments. The company said that its new device will be released on February 12, 2011.

It is worth mentioning that the digital pen will allow the user to enter text data to a PC. It will send any text written on a paper straight to a computer via Bluetooth.

The two main features of the airpenPocket are the digital pen and a Bluetooth capable memory unit that records the written text or drawn image and then stores it on a PC. Everything is performed in a matter of seconds.

Due to the fact that the pen uses Bluetooth, it can alsotransmit information to a cell phone . It could be widely used among content developers and graphic designers.

Samsung Introduces High-Density 'Stacked' DIMMs

Samsung announced Tuesday that it has developed a new kind of registered 8GB DIMM for the server and enterprise storage markets that is capable of increasing memory density by up to 50 percent. According to the company, this should help combat a future decrease in the number of memory slots found in server and enterprise machines.

The module, which will be based on a 40nm production process, will use a special bonding technique called "through-silicon via" (TSV), which stores memory on the modules by stacking them on top of each other and linking them with copper-filled, micron-sized vertical holes. According to Samsung, this arrangement saves up to 40 percent of the power consumed by a conventional registered DIMM.

Brain behind IBM's Watson not unlike a human's

IBM's Watson supercomputer, which shellacked Jeopardy's top human champions during airings of the game show this week, is powered by 90 servers and a network-attacked storage (NAS) cluster with 21.6TB of data.

In the end, though, its brain only has 80% of the processing power of a human brain.

Tony Pearson, master inventor and senior consultant at IBM, explained that Watson only uses about 1TB to process real-time answers to Jeopardy questions after configuring its back end storage as RAID, and then culling that data further to be loaded into the clustered server system's memory.

Watson triumphs in Jeopardy's man vs. machine challenge

In the third night of man vs. machine on Jeopardy, IBM's Watson supercomputer trounced its champion opponents.

After a slow start that saw the computer's human opponents Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter outpacing Watson, the supercomputer made a decisive comeback. At the end of the final game, Watson came away with the big win, racking up a total of $77,147, compared to $24,000 for Jennings and $21,600 for Rutter.

IBM's Watson's ability to converse is a huge advance for AI research

IBM's Jeopardy playing supercomputer has been touted by some observers to be one of the biggest computing advancements in the past several decades.

The supercomputer, dubbed Watson, owes that significance to its ability to deliver more than calculations and documents. It can answer verbal questions posed by humans.

That ability, says IBM researchers and industry analysts, makes this machine more equipped than any before it to organize "thoughts" and verbally converse with people.

Fedora and OpenSuse Linux drop Unity interface efforts

Canonical made quite a splash last fall when it announced that the Unity interface used in its Ubuntu Netbook Edition would 

become the default interface in the Linux distribution's desktop version as well

beginning with version 11.04, or Natty Narwhal.

Google advances Native Client Web browser technology

Google on Friday began offering a revamped SDK for its Native Client open source technology for running Web applications that execute native code inside a browser.

Intel to Build a New 300mm Fab for $5 Billion.

Intel Corp. on Friday announced plans to invest more than $5 billion to build a new chip manufacturing facility at its site in Chandler, Arizona. Although the company is looking forward 450mm chip fabs, the new factory will process 300mm wafers at least initially.

The new Arizona factory, designated Fab 42, will be the most advanced, high-volume semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world, according to Intel. Construction of the new fab is expected to begin in the middle of this year and is expected to be completed in 2013. The new factory will make chips using 14nm manufacturing process on 300mm wafers.