The memory market is feeling the effects of a fall in PC shipments with the subsequent stabilization of DRAM prices, which industry observers say will delay the wide adoption of the upcoming DRAM called DDR4. The latest PCs and servers come with DDR3 SDRAM, and mobile devices have just started getting a type of low-power memory called LPDDR3 (low-power DDR3). DDR4 is the successor to DDR3, and consumes 20 percent to 40 percent less power while offering double the throughput of its predecessor. But with after years of double-digit drops, analysts said that DDR3 DRAM will likely have a longer-than-expected life, which could delay the wide adoption of DDR4 in computers. DRAM prices have stabilized as demand for DDR3 has exceeded supply, and the number of memory makers has also dwindled. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron dominate the DRAM market, while other memory makers have either been acquired or are focusing on the more profitable NAND flash business. The volume shipments of PCs and servers are not enough to justify an early switch to DDR4, analysts said. Also, a lot of focus is now on the fast-growing tablet and smartphone markets, so manufacturers are shifting capacity to LPDDR3 and other forms of mobile memory and storage.
Microsoft today urged Windows 7 users to uninstall a patch shipped earlier this week that has crashed customer's PCs and crippled the machines with endless reboots. The patch, which was originally issued Tuesday, has been pulled from Microsoft's Windows Update service. . Microsoft yanked the patch in response to widespread reports that it was generating the notorious "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD) error message and by rebooting repeatedly, making the PCs useless.
, has created an iPhone 5 worth $17.8 million. It is the "world's most expensive phone," Hughes claims. It took Hughes nine weeks to recreate the chassis of the iPhone 5 in solid, 24ct gold. It was started and finished by hand. The home button was replaced by a 26-carat flawless black diamond, and the chassis was inlaid with 600 white diamonds.
Two-factor authentication—which supplements a user's password with a PIN or code generated by a local application or sent by a cloud provider to a user's device, typically a cell phone—has been adopted by large cloud-service providers as a means of better securing online accounts. Now, a patent lawsuit filed by New Jersey-based StrikeForce challenges two-factor authentication technology used by PhoneFactor, a company acquired by Microsoft last October. The lawsuit could affect the security of all users of Microsoft's consumer cloud services, such as SkyDrive and Outlook.com, as well as users of other services that use two-factor authentication, such as Google and Dropbox.
Hey developers, there's boatloads of VC money you can get your hands on by developing apps for Google Glass. And we've thought of 10 brilliant ideas for you to get started on.
I?m sorry, I don?t care what Zuck or Facebook says. Chatheads, the best aspect of Facebook Home, is one word. Just like ?Facebook.? And all the other compound words that end with ?head,? most of which are filthy and profane.
Bill Campbell, ?coach? to the likes of Apple, Google, Intuit and scores of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, summed up now ex-JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson's implosion as a failure to protect the existing retail business as he sought to radically update it.
Each week, Wired Design brings you a photo of one of our favorite buildings, showcasing boundary-pushing architecture and design involved in the unique structures that make the world's cityscapes interesting. Check back Fridays for the continuing series, and feel free to make recommendations in the comments, by Twitter, or by e-mail.
In the four decades since a group of grocers adopted the U.P.C. symbol as we still know it today, the bar code has become the core technology that ties together physical commerce with our global information infrastructure.
Every week, Wired takes a look at the world of Mad Men -- and the period of American history it examines -- through the lens of the media campaigns of the Sterling, Draper, Cooper, Price advertising agency.
Whether its the Windows 8 "laplets" -- one part laptop, one part tablet -- or just an Android tablet with a dock and mouse, these hybrid devices mean you never really know how visitors are interacting with your site. The W3C is hard at work changing that, but for now web developers will need to cater to all possibilities.
Now you can get Chat Heads even if you don't want the rest of Facebook Home.
Udo Schmidt, a retired researcher from Germany's Federal Center for Meat Research in Bavaria, has been collecting beetles since his late 20s. Now, at 70, his beetle drawers have swelled to 30,000 specimens representing more than 6,000 species. This gallery contains some of Schmidt?s most striking specimens.
When the Army put together its big civilian-military disaster relief drill in Texas this week, it invited an unlikely consultant:
The Kickstarter for the Veronica Mars movie ends later today, breaking fundraising records, taking in over $5 million on the crowdfunding platform, and inspired talk that this could change the way films get made. Wired talked to Thomas to find out more.
The heart of baseball is a love of stats. The heart of MLB's fan cave is a massive NASA-style stats-displaying mission control center.
When the seas get rough, offshore operations get tricky. Heading out in a storm can be dangerous, but delays are costly ? sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. That?s why Dennis Knox designed the SHC Wavedancer, a submersible hull catamaran designed for servicing offshore oil platforms, cable laying and wind farm maintenance.
Controversial pesticides linked to catastrophic honeybee declines in North America and Europe may also kill other creatures, posing ecological threats even graver than feared, say some scientists.
A planetary scientist at NASA has come up with a four-component equation that calculates the odds of a site on Mars being habitable. Wired Science blogger Jeffrey Marlow describes the equation.
It doesn't look like much. The brick office building sits next to strip mall in Cupertino, California, about an hour south of San Francisco, and if you walk inside, you'll find a California flag and a cardboard cutout of R2-D2 and plenty of Christmas decorations -- even though we're well into April. But there are big plans for this building. It's where the "Google of China" hopes to create the future.
Foursquare's convertible debt round does not bode well. Here's why.
Animated GIFs are enjoying a renaissance on the interwebs, but very few of them could be considered art. That's why Peter Marquez grabbed our attention. Instead of getting laughs, his GIFs make us feel.
Those coffee beans have traveled halfway around the world. Now, it's your job to keep from messing everything up.
Do men and women have appreciably different tastes in apps?
In an extended Q&A from Wired's April issue, director Danny Boyle talks about his new movie
Here's how serious the U.S. is about its African war on terror. The Pentagon is preparing to spend millions to create a privatized flying taxi service to fly its commandos everywhere from Libya to Congo.
On June 30, 1970, AT&T uncloaked its commercial Picturephone service in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The service was christened by a call between Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty and John Harper, the Chairman of Alcoa, one of the companies that had already installed Picturephones in its offices. "Here's looking at you," Flaherty said to Harper.
Apple is agreeing to pay $53 million to settle a class action accusing the company of failing to honor warranties on iPhones and iPod Touches, according to an agreement obtained today by Wired.
Samsung, which believes bigger isn't better, it's the best, has introduced
Data scientists are fast becoming the rock stars of the 21st century. Thanks in part to Nate Silver's eerily accurate election predictions and Paul DePodesta's baseball-revolutionizing
We?re all going to die. And when we do, Google wants us to continue controlling our digital selves.
In 1998, James McGirk spent five weeks living and working in Arcosanti, a desert community built in the 1970s that attempts to use ornate architectural planning to help create a harmonious society. Its designer, Frank Lloyd Wright disciple Paolo Soleri, passed away this week at age 93. McGirk remembers his experiences at the location and his interactions with Soleri.
Adm. James Stavridis isn't just the leader of two regional military commands, he's an egghead. So it makes sense that the U.S. Naval Institute tagged him as its next chairman of the board.