High technology news

After years of selling online music digitally wrapped with copy and playback restrictions designed to hinder piracy, major music labels are beginning to make some songs available in the unrestricted MP3 file format.

The releases are part of an experiment to gauge demand for tracks that can be played on any digital music player capable of playing MP3s, one of the oldest music compression formats.

Normally, copy-protected tracks are only playable on certain devices. By selling MP3s, recording companies can ensure they can be played on Apple Computer Inc.’s market-leading iPod players without going through Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. began shipping personal-computer processors made with a new technique that makes them more efficient, closing a gap with market leader Intel Corp.

Advanced Micro is selling four new Athlon desktop-computer chips made with so-called 65-nanometer technology, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a statement today. Personal computers based on the chips go on sale this month.
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South Korean researchers have designed and built an inexpensive optical lens that collects light from a large area and produces a virtually distortion-free wide-angle image. Standing in contrast to commonly known “fisheye” lenses, which produce significant amounts of visual distortion, low-distortion wide-angle lenses can potentially improve image-based applications such as security-camera systems and robot navigation. The new wide-angle lens is lighter, smaller and more affordable than commercially available “rectilinear” lenses, which also produce low-distortion views. The researchers present their new feat of optical technology in the Dec. 1 issue of Applied Optics, a publication of the Optical Society of America.
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SEATTLE (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. unveiled three new high-end computer processors on Wednesday as the chipmaker battles rival Intel Corp. for the “power users” that often set industry buying trends.

AMD also announced aggressive pricing for the chips, known as the Athlon 64 FX-70 series, which will be sold in pairs for $599 to $999, depending on performance. The company’s previous high-end chip, the FX-62, sells for $713.

Computers equipped with more than one processor typically are servers or workstations — machines meant to run business networks or crunch mountains of data — rather than consumer desktop PCs.

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