Due to the losses it has experienced in the past six quarters Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is making a drastic move, the last resort in order for it to keep up with its competitor, Intel. AMD is now breaking into two companies. One will be dedicated to designing the chips while the other one will be involved in the manufacturing. Two firms from Abu Dhabi will also be investing in AMD’s two new companies. The Abu Dhabi firms will give $6 billion and will help out in building a new chip factory in Albany, New York as well as in refurbishing another in Germany.

The factory that will be build in New York has been named Foundry Company, but that’s only for the time being. This factory will be the one to manufacture AMD chips and all the while it will also produce chips for other companies. 44.4 percent of this new company will be owned by AMD while the rest will be controlled by Advanced Technology Investment, one of the investment firms from Abu Dhabi.

A $12 computer?! Is that really possible? We just have to wait and see if the outcome of M.I.T.’s efforts will really be that affordable. Derek Lomas and his associates at M.I.T. are working on this initiative to enable Third World residents to buy a computer for their personal use. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is becoming known for its charitable works. You’ll remember that it is also the same university that initiated the One Laptop Per Child program. The computers that they are working on are based on the Apple II. This idea came about when Lomas came across the unused computers in Bangalore last summer while on an internship stint.

Finally, I get to read something about Friendster. This is the only social networking site where I have an active account. Friendster is the site that is very popular in Asia Pacific and its still growing. Maybe its reach will grow even further as Richard Kimber takes his position as the new CEO and a member of the board of directors. Richard Kimber is Google’s former regional managing director of South Asia. In a statement he made, Kimber seems to be really looking forward to the challenge of improving Friendster’s operations even more.

Would you believe that maybe someday Bluetooth would fade from existence? I think it is likely to happen, especially now that it has a new competitor. A start-up company, Ozmo Devices, offers a new short-range connectivity service. Ozmo launched a new Wi-Fi chip and software that will enable device producers to link up computing accessories without chords. Your headsets, speakers, keyboards and mobile phones can now be connected via Wi-Fi. According to Ozmo, using their software is much more convenient because almost all laptops, handsets, and consoles nowadays are integrated with Wi-Fi chips. So, now it is only a matter of imbedding Ozmo’s software in the accessories to establish fast and convenient connectivity.

They say the best businesses are not those that create trends, but use existing fads to their advantage. And UAE telecommunications company Etisalat is obviously very good at this. They have just launched a new service for their customers who are also fans of the social networking site ‘Facebook’ and use their mobile phones as a camera. If you are an Etisalat user then under the new ‘Weyak MMS’ service you will be able to MMS photos directly to your Facebook account so your friends and family can enjoy the photos you took with your phone.

Unlimited calls, anyone? Maybe you’d like the new service that Skype is now offering for the public. This is in the form of an unlimited international calls service to landline connections as well as some mobile phones. For a monthly fee as low as $9.95, subscribers can now make unlimited international calls. Yes, this new service targets almost 34 countries; to name some we have Australia, China, Chile, Canada, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, and European countries. Personally, I think this is a great and beneficial offer from Skype; for just an affordable fee you can now connect internationally.

I have lots of friends who are into photo editing so much. They say they have fun improving their pictures, well you know, editing those red eyes, changing the background and lots more. Most them make use of Adobe Photoshop. So, I’m sure they will be glad to know that their favorite photography software has a new offering – Photoshop Express, a new online version of the program. This new online Adobe Photoshop version is easier to use and, take note, it is free! For sure, many photography enthusiasts out there are glad to know that they can now upload, store and edit their favorite images using a browser. Tinkering with your pictures need not be confined on one PC. With Photoshop Express you can do so anywhere as long as there’s internet connectivity.

After Blu-Ray’s triumph in the format war, many HD-DVD owners may be wondering what is in store for them. Best Buy, as one of HD-DVD’s major retailer is giving away free gift cards to its customers who bought HD-DVD players as well as its attachments. Customers who are legitimate for the $50 gift cards are those who made their purchase in U.S. stores before February 23, 2008. In case you bought two or more players, you can have a gift card for each of them. This also goes for the HD-DVD attachments bought.

TiVo users have another reason to be glad because just last week the company announced the latest update on its Desktop software. The new Desktop Plus 2.6 allows you to download videos from the web onto their DVR. However, in order to download Web videos you have to download the Desktop Plus 2.6 your PC’s hard drive. After that it can be transferred to your TiVO through the home network. Downloading is very easy as you can make it from any web browser and various RSS video clients.

Every little boy dreams of owning an X-ray camera or even a pair of x-ray goggles that can reveal what lies beneath clothing. And I am sad to say that this dream will not be coming true any time soon. However, a new x-ray camera that detects the presence of drugs, weapons and other potentially harmful substances underneath clothing has been manufactured. The T5000 Security Imaging System has been put to use in Dubai and was manufactured and developed in the UK.

Though I’ve been using the Internet for some time now, I must say there are still a lot of things I don’t know about, like Netscape. For your and my information, Netscape is a set of software that offer applications like email, browsing and authoring of HTML. One of the components in this set is the Netscape Navigator. This browser has been online for 14 years now and understandably, though not much update is done with it, a lot would still be surprised to know that AOL is about to let it go, for good. By March 1, 2008 we’ll be finally saying goodbye to this aged browser as announced by its maker AOL.

Online chatting can be a fun way to pass the time. But, it wouldn’t be so if there is language barrier. There would be no point if the person at the other end of the web does not understand what you are talking about. Even though English is the universal language, there are still a lot who cannot understand and express themselves in this language. This could be overcome pretty soon with SpeakLike’s on the spot IM translation service. A beta version of SpeakLike was launched at the end of January this year and is only available on by invitation only.

Yahoo music subscribers have nothing to worry about if they’ve heard of the news that Yahoo Inc. will stop its online subscription to service. Those are subscribed to a particular plan on Yahoo Music can still continue availing of the service. Yahoo Inc. will be selling its digital music service to Rhapsody America, the music subscription service from RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. This move to turnover their online music subscription service is in accordance with the move to improve their online music service. Yahoo wants to focus more on ad-supported music as well as other offerings. The deal is expected to be complete by the middle of this year. So, far no details regarding the deal between Yahoo and RealNetworks Inc. have been disclosed, only that Yahoo will promote Rhapsody.

The laptop I bought operates on the processor made by AMD that is why I am now also becoming interested in the new offerings that AMD is dishing out for the market. And this company does have a new offering. It is a new dual- processor graphics card – the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 that houses 2 graphics processor in a single board. So, being dual means that its performance is 2 times better than the processor with a single chip. I will not dwell into the technicalities on how AMD integrated 2 processors on a single board. The technical features are just too much for me.