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The fresh trend of Micro Four Thirds shooters is on the rise, thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that more glass-makers are jumping on the MFT bandwagon. Joining the likes of Panasonic, Olympus and Kodak as part of the Micro Four Thirds Group, is a trifecta of third-party lens manufacturers: Tamron, Kenko Tokina and ASTRODESIGN. Following closely behind rival Sigma, the newcomers are looking to make a dent in the four-thirds universe. Better late than never, right? There's still no sign of these optics being available for you to stack in your camera bag, but the news just came in, so it shouldn't be too long before you can get some extra glass for your shiny new GX1.Continue reading Tamron and Kenko bring third-party glass to the Micro Four Thirds bashTamron and Kenko bring third-party glass to the Micro Four Thirds bash originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Wired  |  Four Thirds  | Email this | Comments

It's not the smallest transistor out there, but the boffins at IBM have constructed the tiniest carbon nanotube transistor to date. It's nine nanometers in size, making it one nanometer smaller than the presumed physical limit of silicon transistors. Plus, it consumes less power and is able to carry more current than present-day technology. The researchers accomplished the trick by laying a nanotube on a thin layer of insulation, and using a two-step process -- involving some sort of black magic, no doubt -- to add the electrical gates inside. The catch? (There's always a catch) Manufacturing pure batches of semiconducting nanotubes is difficult, as is aligning them in such a way that the transistors can function. So, it'll be some time before the technology can compete with Intel's 3D silicon, but at least we're one step closer to carbon-based computing.IBM builds 9 nanometer carbon nanotube transistor, puts silicon on notice originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Technology Review  |  Nano Letters  | Email this | Comments

All of new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins' fresh ideas will apparently still be revealed to the company's board in a couple of weeks, but he's already dropped some gems in interviews with the Wall Street Journal and Reuters (update: and Bloomberg). First item on the agenda? Getting current users upgraded to the latest and greatest BlackBerry hardware. Citing internal statistics that indicate 80- to 90- percent of the company's customer base aren't running BlackBerry 7 hardware yet, it will work closely with US carriers to promote upgrades until the new BB10 devices hit later this year. There's no word on what the carrier deals include, but he hinted at device or preloaded app bundles. He also promised an LTE version of the PlayBook would arrive this spring, with LTE connected handsets also planned for the BlackBerry 10 lineup. Is that enough to turn around RIM's fortunes in the US, where he acknowledged the company is "a turnaround candidate"? We'll find out, but as obvious as the need to placate the already BBM-addicted may be, execution of the plan is everything.Shocker! New RIM CEO targets existing BlackBerry users for upgrades originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg  | Email this | Comments

Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein has officially left HP, effective today. Rubinstein became CEO of Palm in 2009 and led the company’s push with webOS, eventually selling the company to HP in 2010. When asked if he had any immediate plans, Rubinstein said he was going to take a well-deserved rest after working on webOS for the last few years. And what a last few years they have been. Rubinstein’s first big hit came when he worked at Apple where he created the iPod. In 2009, he wowed CES with the Palm Pre. However, a series of bad business decisions left Palm in dire straights. HP bought the failing company when under the command of Mark Hurd. Rubinstein opted to stay on with a 12-24 month contract, which he has now completed. Hurd’s successor, Leo Apotheker tried to kill webOS entirely, but current CEO Meg Whitman has decided to open source the platform instead. Near the end, Rubinstein was assigned to the Personal System Group at HP, and a new manager took over webOS. That made it pretty clear he was working on an exit strategy. Where do you think Jon Rubinstein will show up next?

Before smartphone patents took over the spotlight, everyone’s favorite patent troll was Rambus. The technology licensing firm has been using the so-called Barth patents for years to sue tech companies and extract licensing fees as a settlement. After invalidating two of the three Barth patents earlier this year, the U.S. Patent Office has now invalidated the third as well.  It was the Barth patents that Rambus used to win lawsuits against Nvidia, HP, and more. The technologies described in these patents pertained mostly to memory chip design, and were considered to be Rambus’ most valuable IP. Rambus pulled in $312.4 million in revenue last year on the strength of its patent portfolio. That amount is likely to drop in 2012. Rambus can appeal the latest blow to its business, but a Patent Office examiner is unlikely to disagree with the appeals board that invalidated it. The company has other patents to throw around, but none can pull in the kind of fees the Barth patents did. Do you think it’s time for Rambus to ride off into the sunset?

Investors have been salivating over the possibilities for years, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the wait is nearly over. Facebook is going to file for its IPO next week with a company valuation of between $75 an $100 billion. Not only will the IPO let people own a piece of Facebook, but this will finally let employees cash out those stock options. Facebook is looking to raise about $10 billion on that $100 billion valuation, so most of the company will remain privately owned. Shares of Facebook have been sold privately for several years, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been cautioning the company against taking on too many investors lest it be forced to divulge financial data to the public before an IPO. If a $100 billion valuation happens, that would make Facebook worth about half as much as Google, and the same as McDonald’s. One thing’s for sure, though. Facebook is about to transform its employees into the newest round of Silicon Valley millionaires.