Microsoft and Polycom Expand Their Relationship

Polycom and Microsoft today announced that the two companies are deepening their strategic relationship to deliver one of the broadest and most powerful sets of voice and video solutions for unified communications and collaboration. As part of Microsoft’s vision to broaden the availability of Microsoft RoundTable, Polycom has licensed the right to distribute RoundTable, effective April 13, 2009. The product, renamed the Polycom CX5000 Unified Conference Station, will be available through Polycom and its extensive channel network.

California Still Trying To Ban Big HDTVs?

I thought this whole thing about banning HDTVs in California was over with but apparently I was wrong. With so many other things that really, really, really need fixing…worrying about what TV my family uses a few hours a day seems retarded.

The CEC proposal is set up as a two-tiered system. The first enforces efficiency standards beginning in 2011 and would save 3,831 gigawatt hours (and bring down overall TV energy consumption by 33%) by placing a cap on the active mode power usage (in watts) of individual TVs. Current standards in California only regulate TVs in standby mode, at a cap of 3.0 watts.

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Left 4 Dead Plush Toy

Some dude’s girlfriend made him a plush toy that looks just like a smoker from Left 4 Dead. That is just awesome, she's definitely a keeper. Thanks to Ed C. for the linkage.

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Skype For iPhone: It's Official

The folks at C|Net say that Skype for the iPhone is official and should be available from the App Store sometime tomorrow.

Months after teasing us at CES with an announcement of Skype's native VoIP client for the iPhone, the free Skype for iPhone will finally be available to download from the iTunes App Store sometime on Tuesday. We got a chance to sit down with the application's principal engineer before the announcement was made at CTIA 2009, to see Skype for iPhone do its thing.

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Video Games, Computers and Crayons Cripple Children

Honestly, I hope this site is an early April Fool’s Day joke. If not, I think every one of us should take a picture of our hands and send it to this guy as proof we were not crippled by crayons, computers or video games. Never mind, that's a bad idea, I can just see this guy getting bombed with thousands of pictures of middle fingers.

The pulsating vibrations in the game controller sends 1,000's of numbing shock loads through the fingers, knuckles and hands, which causes physical deformities within weeks because each vibration inflicts a permanent injury and the injuries accumulate and the resulting physical deformities quickly appear within a few weeks.

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Google Launches Music Service in China

Google has launched an online music service in China. Unfortunately for you and I, the service will not be available outside of China. If you lead the world in music and movie piracy, soon enough Google will move in with free, advertising-supported music. I guess piracy really does work.

The new venture, which officially began service Monday after seven months of testing, will be free to users in China, but won't work elsewhere. It will earn revenue from advertising on pages that let users download or stream licensed music from more than 140 labels, including the world's four biggest: Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music, EMI Group Ltd., and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG.

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WD Enters Solid-State Drive Market

Western Digital, a world leader in hard drive storage for computing and consumer electronics applications, today announced that it has completed a $65 million cash acquisition of SiliconSystems, Inc., Aliso Viejo, Calif., a leading supplier of solid-state drives for the embedded systems market.

Since its inception in 2002, SiliconSystems has sold millions of SiliconDrive® products to meet the high performance, high reliability and multi-year product lifecycle demands of the network-communications, industrial, embedded-computing, medical, military and aerospace markets. These markets accounted for approximately one third of worldwide solid-state drive revenues in 2008.

VIA Delivers Stunning Hi-Def Video and DX10.1 to Pico-ITXe

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the first expansion HD module for the VIA EPIA-P710, the VIA P710-HD. Featuring the powerful 4300E embedded graphics processor from S3 Graphics, this first Pico-I/O module for stackable Pico-ITXe boards delivers Hi-Def™ video playback and advanced graphics in an extremely low power, compact form factor. With multiple display support including dual DVI and HDMI, the VIA P710-HD module opens up a new realm of possibilities to system integrators of multimedia intensive embedded applications.

Google Downplays Security Concerns Affecting Docs

Google has acknowledged some security issues that affects Google Docs but is telling everyone that they are “far from critical.” Still, they have addressed the concerns head-on and posted information in the help-pages for Docs related to the issues.

Google may make changes to Docs as a result of Barkah's report. "We are also exploring alternative design options that might further address the concerns. We'd like to thank the researcher for sharing his concerns with us," [Google Docs product manager Jonathan] Rochelle wrote.

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[H] Gaming News

Game releases for 3/29-4/4 @ ShackNews

GDC 09 Highlights @ IGN, Gamespot, Massively,and 1UP

Terminator:Salvation intro cinema HD @ GameTrailers

Sony mystery announcement on Tuesday 3/31 @ Kotaku

Gamestop Gamedays sale list revealed, take effect 4/5 @ Socroendo

The Making of Honda's ‘Let it Shine’ Ad

If you’re curious how Honda filmed that ‘Let it Shine’ commercial that Steve posted last week, here’s the 5 minute video. Why does it seem like the US never gets to see the really cool Honda commercials? First, the awesome Rube Goldberg-like Honda Accord ad and now this Insight commercial. Oh well.

The commercial, called 'Let it Shine', was created by the Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and uses a bank of Insights parked in a grid near the mountains as pixels in a giant LED-like display. When the sun goes down, the headlights begin flickering on and off to create a cutesy animation to the tune of "This Little Light of Mine".

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[H]ardware Roundup

Cases

In Win Matrix mATX @ 3GM

Cooler Master Sileo 500 @ OverclockersOnline

Cooling

Gelid WING and Silent TC case fans @ B3D

Cooler Master V10 CPU cooler @ Virtual-Hideout

Misc.

Ubuntu LPIA-based MID edition saves power @ Phoronix

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! USB sound card @ TechSpot

Motherboards

ASRock x48 TurboTwins-WiFi @ PCShopTalk

Sapphire PURE CrossFireX 790GX @ TweakTown

Storage

SanDisk Extreme III 4GB SDHC flash card @ Legit Reviews

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA HDD @ ClubOC