AMD’s upcoming 4×4 gaming platform will cost “substantially” under $1,000 - for the processors at least. So said company VP Pat Moorhead, who showed off a prototype system in the US yesterday, though details of the system were kept under wraps.

Source: TheRegister

Google Inc. said on Tuesday that the company has begun offering mobile phone users in more than 30 major U.S. cities the capacity to view highway maps with “live” traffic data.

The Mountain View, California-based company said that Google Maps for Mobile would allow mobile phone users to chose a destination within Google Maps and select “show traffic,” said Gummi Hafsteinsson, product manager of Google Maps for Mobile. Google Maps calculates the route to the location.

Highway traffic information is sent to the phone, with road conditions highlighted in three colors: — red for congested, yellow or orange for slowdowns, and green for smooth sailing.

The service can be found on mobile phone Web browsers at http://google.com/gmm.

Source: Reuters

Yahoo Inc. and Symantec Corp. unveiled a joint consumer Internet security service on Monday that will help the two companies compete against major rivals such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp..

The two companies said they would offer Symantec’s Norton Internet Security product directly to Yahoo customers in a deal that expands an ongoing partnership and seeks to take advantage of growing consumer demand for more Internet protection.

Source: Reuters

Motorola Inc. introduced two additions to its Razr phone family at its annual analysts’ meeting, hoping they will be hits during the end-of-year holiday shopping season.

The Krzr (pronounced ‘Crazer’) and the Rizr are not yet in stores, but the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company is counting on the stylish phones’ success to extend a hot streak that has boosted its market share to 22 percent, highest in eight years.

The Krzr is expected in stores in the third quarter and the Rizr in the fourth quarter, the company said in kicking off its two-day analysts’ conference Monday night. Pricing isn’t yet available.

Source: AP

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) ended its “Operation Red Card�? anti-piracy campaign in mid-July, declaring victory and citing a record number of illegal disc and optical disc burner seizures, the industry group said Tuesday.

Coinciding approximately with this year’s World Cup soccer tournament, the MPA worked with local law enforcement agencies throughout Asia to provide information about alleged pirates and piracy activities, and often accompanied officers on their raids.

About 6,700,000 optical discs were seized in the raids, along with 1,483 optical disc burners, and the arrest of 915 suspects, all of which surpassed earlier records for similar campaigns, the MPA said.

Source: Yahoo

Nuance Communications says its Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 9, announced last week, tackles two of the chief hurdles to the adoption of speech recognition — accuracy problems and training requirements.

“This release makes speech recognition a benefit for everybody,” said Robert Weideman, senior vice president of marketing and product strategy for Nuance.

Version 9 is targeted at first-time users, he said. The company is claiming accuracy of up to 99 percent in the new release.

Nuance said high accuracy levels are achieved from the start of usage, although users will find that accuracy will still continue to improve with usage. “We’ve combined the elimination of voice training and the ability of the product to improve,” said Weideman.

Source: InformationWeek