plans-interactifs.net

“The new Core i7’s and Core i5’s bring pricing to more mainstream levels, with the Core i5-750 at a 1KU (1,000 units) price of $196, which is well below the Core 2 Quad Q9650 at $316,” said Intel spokesman George Alfs.

There are other gotchas too. On the i5 processors a feature called hyperthreading is not included, as CNET’s Rich Brown pointed out Tuesday. Hyperthreading effectively doubles the number of tasks–or processing threads–a chip can do. “Heavy multitaskers and those who use multithreaded software will feel the loss here,” Brown said.

Updated at 2:15 p.m. PDT: adding information about Dell system.

The official pricing from Intel in quantities of 1,000 units makes the price gap even more stark: $196 for the i5 and $316 for the Q9650.

The i5, which brings Intel’s new “Nehalem” microarchitecture into the mainstream PC market, immediately makes many, if not most, of the older desktop processors obsolete. Consumers need look no further than pricing on sites like Amazon. The i5-750 lists for $250, while the older–based on Intel’s last-generation “Core 2″ microarchitecture–Q9650 lists for $319.

Comparing the old with the new, some consumers might point out that the older Q9650 has, for example, more on-chip memory and a higher clock speed than the Core i5. But the writing is on the wall: consumers will almost always opt for new over old when new is less expensive.

“It gets confusing for the more technically knowledgeable buyer, and for us as system builders,” said Kelt Reeves, president of enthusiast PC maker Falcon Northwest. “Buying a Core-i7 950 model? Well then you can have a maximum of 12 gigs (gigabytes) of triple channel memory and you buy your memory in sets of 3 sticks. Buying a Core i7-870? Well then your memory is installed in pairs and the max you can have is 8 gigs,” he explained.

The message is more muddled, however, for the updated Core i7 processors because they maintain the same “i7″ identifier as their predecessors–first launched in November–but offer different features that are not readily apparent to less-sophisticated buyers and potentially vexing for some savvy consumers.

“We are very serious about bringing all new Core processors to new price points and you’ll see this trend continue with Westmere,” he said, referring to Intel’s upcoming processors based on a next-generation 32-nanometer manufacturing process.

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Amazon)

The main message of the new Core i5 chip is simple: it’s cheap–even cheaper than Intel chips based on older technology.

On Tuesday, Dell began offering the Studio XPS 8000 tower with the Core i5 starting at $799 and packing 4GB of “Dual Channel DDR3 memory” and a 500GB hard disk drive, among other features. Adding a 20-inch monitor hikes this to $979.

Reeves continued. “For instance, if you’re a heavy Photoshop user having 12 gigs of the fastest memory might be very important to you,” he added, saying in that case a consumer would want to opt for a Core i7 900 series over the newer 800 series.

Its task-centric search tool is comprised of three boxes–a “what,” “where,” and “when.” You just tell it what you want to do and where you want to do it, as well as some general date (or no date at all), and it goes through its index to find you places or activities that match up with those simple parameters. Oftentimes this results in it finding events that fall during the time period you originally selected, which is a pretty neat trick for a search engine and potentially a huge time saver if you’re using it for vacation or business travel search.

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CNET)

Update: It should be noted Goby can only be used in Firefox and Internet Explorer at the moment. Support for Safari and Chrome is on the way and “coming soon” according to the company.

But it’s not going to be like that forever. Goby’s CEO Mark Watkins tells me that there will eventually be review links from places like Yelp, as well as mentions on places like Facebook and Twitter–something that should give results some social flavor. For now at least, you’re going to have to hoof it over to Yelp, CitySearch, or some other local reviews place to get ratings and reviews for restaurants and other local businesses.

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CNET)

Along with helping users fill out the beginnings of a search query, it also does a decent job at letting them whittle down the results. For instance, if you want to limit the results to a specific area, you can just grab a pin from the map that sits on the right of the results page, and it filters points of interest down to that vicinity. You can also restart a search query within one or more genres just by clicking on their check boxes.

You tell Goby what you want to do and where you want to do it, and it searches the Web to find events and happening places.

Goby can also show you things nearby any of the search results in one of three categories. Clicking on any of these starts another search.

The tool does many things to help you fill out its three search boxes quickly, and get straight to the results. For one, it offers up suggestions as you type. You can also cruise through a nested folders of activities in its index for suggestions. In my case, it did a spot-on job at turning “tomorrow” into in real date. It also rolled “beers” into its food and drink category, along with providing other category suggestions like “beer tastings”, “breweries” and “bars and pubs.”

See also Diddit, a service that launched back in February, that helps people make lists of things to do, as well as discover local lists made by others. There’s also Yahoo-owned Upcoming, which provides local events and venues listings.

Other things on the way include a personal search history, which will let users save their queries for future searches that will show updated results based on date and index changes. The company is also working on an iPhone app that will be able to automatically fill out the “where” field based on the user’s location, however this and the personal search history will not be immediately available on launch.

New search engine Goby is launching Tuesday night, and unlike Microsoft’s Bing, or Hunch, Goby really is a “decision engine”–enabling users to very quickly find something to do nearby or in a far away place.

One thing it’s missing though (and it’s a biggie) is a way to tell you how good any of these places are. If you’re used to hitting Yelp to hunt for a new place to eat, or something fun to do on the weekend, Goby doesn’t offer any kind of social-rating system or tools of its own.

League creation

Fantasy Football Sharks features articles from fantasy football experts. They’re informative, but the best part of the site is its player-projections page, which features a searchable “cheatsheet” to give you help drafting players, as well as player projections and analysis. I found the most use in the site’s player projections. There, you can search through the different players you’re interested in to see how Fantasy Football Sharks believes they will perform. Those calculations are based on past performance, the player’s schedule difficulty this year, and other factors. It’s an extremely handy tool. I like Fantasy Football Sharks. And since it’s free, it might be one of the better options in this roundup.

When you first get to Fantasy Football Xtreme, you might be a little overwhelmed by the amount of information it packs onto the screen. Once you get used to it, you’ll find that it’s filled with information you’ll definitely want with you when you draft players. The site includes rankings, rookie evaluations, and some of the most informative stat-tracking tools I’ve ever used. The site’s Mock Draft feature is another handy tool for helping you determine who to pick up for your team. But like many of the services in this roundup, you’ll be forced to pay for some of the better information. Fantasy Football Xtreme will set you back $19.95 annually for access to everything on the site.

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

CBS Fantasy Football If you’re looking for a full-featured fantasy product, check out CBS Fantasy Football.

1. FantasyFootball: With so many great features and in-depth content, FantasyFootball is a fine site for any fantasy football player.

Unlike so many other services, FantasyFootball doesn’t just cater to those looking for the big names. Sure, it has those big names, but if you’re playing in a large league with some no-names on your team, FantasyFootball will tell you everything you need to know about those players. The site’s articles are also worth checking out.

Fantasy Football Sharks has some outstanding analysis tools.

Fox Sports' stats information isn't as nice as it could be.

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

NFL Fantasy Football The National Football League’s Fantasy Football game isn’t the best service in this roundup, but if you want the authentic game, NFL.com is the place to be.

CBS Fantasy Football is a great fantasy game option.

NFL Fantasy Football tells you which players to gun for.

NFL Fantasy Football’s greatest benefit is its expert advice. You’ll find important information on every player on your team, the likelihood of them playing in the coming weeks, and more. NFL Fantasy Football’s design is quite nice too. All in all, it’s a fine service for the fantasy football player.

Tools to improve your team

My top 3

Get your fantasy on

After you sign up for CBS Fantasy Football, you can either join a public league or create your own private league for free. The app makes it easy to find players, you have the option of online and offline drafting, and customizing your league takes just seconds. When you finally create your league, you’ll find everything from expert advice to draft kits. The service has some really nice features. (Disclosure: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.)

After several months of waiting, fantasy football is finally back. Football fans all over the U.S. are gearing up to take on friends as they compete to find out who has what it takes to capture this year’s crown.

FantasyFootball has some great depth charts.

Fantasy Football Champs features two main attractions: Cheatsheet and Team Analyzer. Cheatsheet tells you which players to start each week, based on a series of matchups the site calculates to help you out. Team Analyzer runs similar calculations, but directs those at the different teams in the league. Trying to find the best team defense this week? Want to know which team will likely win? Want to know which players on those teams will perform well? Team Analyzer will let you know. In my experience, those predictions are quite accurate. But before you start heading to Fantasy Football Champs, be aware that access to all that content will cost you $16.95 annually.

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Fantasy Football Champs has some great statistical content.

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Fantasy Football Xtreme sports some great analysis tools.

FantasyFootball If you’re looking for a wealth of stats and information about all your players, FantasyFootball is for you.

ESPN Fantasy Football ESPN Fantasy Football features everything you’d want from a fantasy service.

2. Fantasy Football Sharks: It has all the content you’ll find elsewhere, but it’s free. Nice.

Fantasy Football Champs Fantasy Football Champs is one of my favorite resources when I get ready for the season. It features a slew of statistical tools that will help you find the right players before the draft.

When you create your own fantasy league, you’ll see the real value of Yahoo’s Fantasy Football. You can choose to play in a “head-to-head” league or play a points game where the only thing that matters is how well your team performs collectively. The games are free, but the better you do, the greater your chances of earning prizes in the public leagues. Researching players is quick and easy. Adjusting your team is a cinch. I could go on, but suffice it to say that Yahoo Fantasy Football is one of the services to beat this year.

3. Fantasy Football Champs: Fantasy Football Champs distinguishes itself with such great content.

ESPN Fantasy Football provides information on every player.

Fox Sports Fantasy Football Fox Sports has a fine fantasy football service with all the basics. But unfortunately, it can’t quite stack up to the competition.

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Yahoo Fantasy Football Yahoo’s Fantasy Football game is one of the most highly respected services in the space for good reason.

Fantasy Football Xtreme If you’re looking for some draft help, Fantasy Football Xtreme is definitely worth checking out. It features everything from rookie listings to its own draft picks, based on expert opinions.

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Fantasy Football Sharks While many of its competitors are offering outstanding services for a fee, Fantasy Football Sharks doesn’t do anything of the sort. In fact, you can pick up some great information from the service for free.

After you sign up for the free Fantasy Football on ESPN, you can opt to join a public or private game. From there, you can rank you players, research those that will provide the best chances of helping your team, and more. Thanks to ESPN’s wealth of information, you can research any stat you want. Playing in the ESPN league is simple and fun. But I had one issue with ESPN’s service: the company’s “Insider” offering, which provides the best information on players, will cost you $3.33 per month for access to it. That’s a bummer.

Yahoo's Fantasy Service gives you several league-creation options.

To achieve that goal, you’ll need the right tools. That’s where we come in. Check out these tools for the fantasy football player.

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

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Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Fox Sports Fantasy Football service features private leagues, online drafts, and player research. But where it lacks is in the relatively little amount of information you can gather about players. It has expert advice and some stat information, but those stats aren’t nearly as detailed as they should be. It was a glaring omission that would make me think twice about Fox’s service.

It does appear that the issue only affects the 500GB hard drives that run at 7200rpm.

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Apple)

People have been reporting that they hear a beep from the computer shortly before the hard drive clicks and then the computer stops responding. The computer is unresponsive for 10 seconds or so and then begins to work normally again.

The hard drive issue does not require the user to force-reboot the computer, which would cause any unsaved work to be lost. Simply waiting out the unresponsive system apparently works every time.

“We are aware of the issue and are working on a software update,” Apple representative Bill Evans, told CNET News on Monday. He gave no time frame for the release of the software update.

There doesn’t appear to be any specific task that triggers the hard drive to enter its unresponsive state. Users on Apple’s support forums are reporting that it seems to be completely random and doesn’t matter where they are or what they are doing when it happens.

Owners of Apple MacBook Pro notebooks with 7200rpm 500GB hard drives have been complaining for months of clicking sounds followed by temporary stalling. According to Apple, a fix is in the works.

“Google received a (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) take-down request that erroneously listed Thepiratebay.org, and as a result, this URL was accidentally removed from the Google search index,” Google said in a statement. “We are now correcting the removal, and you can expect to see Thepiratebay.org back in Google search results this afternoon.”

The case is a bit ironic, in that it’s well-established that The Pirate Bay does not store any unauthorized copies of films, music, TV shows, or other content.

Google said on Friday that an error caused the search engine to remove The Pirate Bay from its search pages.

Separately, The Pirate Bay’s site appeared down Friday afternoon at 1:15 p.m. PT, at least in many U.S. areas.

Indeed, the service can help people find pirated content, but so can a lot of search engines, including Google. The notion that the Pirate Bay would be pulled down because of a single copyright claim is sort of humorous.

Later, Google updated it’s statement: “The removal appears to be an internal error and not part of a DMCA request.”

Update 3 p.m. PT: To include an updated comment from Google.

If that’s all that was needed to have the site kicked off, it would have happened years ago. The music and film industries, as well as other copyright owners, have complained about The Pirate Bay for years.

Peter Sunde-Kolmisoppi told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagblated that The Pirate Bay’s attorney sent a letter to both Google and the companies that are suspected of being behind the allegations and demanded that the Pirate Bay be returned to Google’s index. The Pirate Bay accused Google of censoring a competitor and of stifling free expression, the paper reported.

The DMCA’s safe-harbor provision is designed to shield Internet service providers from being held liable for copyright infringement committed by users. But the provision has a certain set of requirements that ISPs must meet, and one of them includes promptly removing infringing material.

Google didn’t provide any details about what caused the error but at this point it doesn’t seem to be some kind of orchestrated effort to bring down The Pirate Bay–at least on Google’s part. According to Google, it was just a goof.

Other automakers betting on all-electric cars include Coda Automotive, Mitsubishi, and Nissan, which introduced the Leaf earlier this month.

Although BYD is still not well known with most consumers, the company has gotten a lot of media attention, in part because of Buffet’s $230 million investment. Also, BYD appears to be one of the front-runners in making electric cars for the mass market.

The company chairman Wang Chuanfu told the Wall Street Journal that the company, which is part-owned by investor Warren Buffet, is now gearing up for a U.S. push. It plans to raise money by offering shares in the company in China to help finance the expansion.

Part of the goal with the car introduction is to raise brand awareness of BYD with American consumers, he added.

BYD's e6, its high-end all-electric car it plans to bring to the U.S. in small numbers next year.

BYD already sells plug-in hybrid sedans with a small gasoline engine that charges the batteries to fleet owners.

Chinese auto company BYD plans to bring an all-electric sedan in small numbers to the U.S. next year.

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BYD)

Initially, it will make the $40,000 car available to “government agencies, utilities and maybe some celebrities” in a specific region, Wang told the Journal during a factory tour of the BYD’s lithium ion battery factory.

BYD plans to offer a few hundred of one of its most advanced cars in the U.S., the five-seat e6, which takes seven to nine hours to fully charge and has a 250-mile range.

By contrast, Smith said several hundred people inside Intel are already running Windows 7 on their corporate machines.

The move comes as Microsoft gears up for the October 22 launch of Windows 7.

Microsoft and Intel showed these power consumption improvements results for a system running Windows 7, left, and Vista. The left chart shows consumption while the system was idle; at right, when playing a DVD.

The event was designed to outline the joint work that the two halves of Wintel have been doing to make Windows 7 perform better in areas such as virtualization, power management, and performance.

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Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Microsoft and Intel declined to say just how much overall battery life improvement Windows 7 might offer as compared to Vista, saying there are too many factors that can influence such results.

“We’re achieving a very significant amount of battery savings,” said Microsoft principal program manager Ruston Panabaker.

Ruston Panabaker, Microsoft's principal program manager of strategic silicon partnering, shows how later builds of Windows 7 were able to let the processor enter low-power states for longer periods of time, saving more power.

At a demo on Tuesday, Microsoft showed two identical laptops playing the same DVD, with the Windows 7-equipped notebook getting 20 percent better battery life than one running Windows Vista. In general, users can expect newer systems running Windows 7 to offer 10 percent to 20 percent better battery improvement when watching a DVD.

CNET News’ Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.

On the performance side, Microsoft and Intel showed a reference system that can boot up in 11 seconds, although again real-world performance is likely to vary a lot based on what’s inside the PC and how well tuned it is. For instance, the system shown Tuesday had a solid-state drive and other high-performance componets.

SAN FRANCISCO–Upgrading a newer machine from Windows Vista to Windows 7 might mean that you get to see the last few minutes of that DVD on a long flight.

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Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Perhaps the most encouraging thing for Microsoft is the fact that Intel itself is willing to use Windows 7 within its own corporate walls. The chipmaker has been an XP-only shop throughout Vista’s life. In an interview here, Intel VP Stephen Smith said that Intel had some internal applications that weren’t Vista-compatible and the benefits of moving to Vista didn’t justify the costs.

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Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Playing a DVD, a Windows Vista Ultimate system, left showed an estimated battery life of 4.14 hours, but the Windows 7 Ultimate system on the right showed 5.5 hours.

“I don’t want to state a number,” Panabaker said at the event, which was organized by Intel and Microsoft.

We tested Outbox by opening Gmail from the browser and then switching the phone to airplane mode. When you create a message and send it, you still receive Google’s confirmation message that the e-mail “sent.” But arrow back to the Gmail menu and you’ll now see a label for Outbox that appears below the Chats label. Tap it to view the subject line, time stamp, and first line of the e-mail you have waiting for delivery.

For the duration of its existence until now, the offline experience on Gmail.com from your iPhone or Android phone has been a unidirectional activity: you could compose outgoing mail, but not view it before it sent.

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Google)

Since Outbox is a limited read-only feature, you won’t be able to edit the e-mail, or even tap it to read the entire body. However, it does provide an at-a-glance confirmation that an e-mail is still waiting to be sent.

Make use of the Outbox when in offline mode.

No longer. Introduced on Thursday, Outbox is a new Gmail.com feature for Android and iPhone users. It provides mobile Web users a way to view the queue of outgoing messages that Google will ship out once the cell phone gets back into a coverage zone.

Gmail.com for mobile is accessed from the browser on iPhones running 2.2.1 of the operating system or above, and on Android phones. It’s available in U.S. English.

Next up is cameras. Panasonic is introducing a new Micro Four Thirds camera, called the GF1, which is likely to set the standard in the interchangeable-lens compact category.
It will come in several colors–everywhere but the US–have 720p HD movie recording, and ship in a couple of kits all priced at $899.95. Plus, unlike its competitor the Olympus E-P1, it will have a pop-up flash and an optional electronic viewfinder. (For more details on the Panasonic Lumix GF1, see Lori Grunin’s in-depth preview.)

Next year they’ll have several models of 3D TVs as well as a 3D Blu-ray player. He doesn’t say exactly when, nor does he provide photos or any specifications.

BERLIN–At Panasonic’s press conference, which officially opens press day here at IFA Berlin 2009, the magic number is three, as in 3D and thirds.

In order to talk about the future of 3D film, Panasonic shows us the trailer of James Cameron’s upcoming film, “Avatar.” But they show it in 2D. Odd. At least Sony showed us 3D stuff in 3D.

Now Yoshiiku Miyata, a senior executive at Panasonic AVC Networks, is here to explain. “Next year TV will change dramatically,” he said. The first Full HD 3D products will display two different 1080p projections, one to each eye, which special 3D glasses would then make look like one image. It will of course be on plasma, this being Panasonic.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 photos

The new Lumix GF1.

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Erica Ogg/CNET)

Laurent Abadie, CEO of Panasonic Europe, is up first. He is talking up Full HD 3D, a new business for the company, with the goal of bringing 3D from the theater to the home. Sony said Wednesday it has the same goal.

“To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetization, we look at factors like the number of views, the video’s virality, and compliance with the YouTube terms of service,” YouTube said in the blog. “If your video is eligible for monetization, you will receive an e-mail and see an ‘Enable Revenue Sharing’ message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account.”

YouTube said in a note posted to Google’s blog that it will enable users who start accumulating lots of hits to generate revenue from their clips–provided they meet YouTube’s terms.

Google announced Tuesday that its video site is opening the YouTube Partnership Program to the masses–provided they’re packing a hot video.

You don’t have to be some high-paid auteur or even create a wildly popular character like “Fred” to cash in on YouTube.

“It’s taken us some time,” YouTube wrote, “to build out the YouTube Partnership Program, our content-management tools and other infrastructure to handle expanding the (program) to so many individual users and videos.”

Now anyone has the potential to share in ad revenue, not just megahits like "Fred", the YouTube character created by teen Lucas Cruikshank, seen here.

The program gives YouTube the ability to choose only the choice material.

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Greg Sandoval/CNET News)

Critics have always knocked YouTube’s alleged inability to monetize the amateur-made videos on the site. Advertisers were afraid to get anywhere near this kind of content because it was too unpredictable. But that was when people thought YouTube would only serve ads against all of the content on its site.

Once a user says yes, YouTube goes to work selling advertising against the user’s video.