(Credit: Quantronics)

A federal court in Australia on Thursday ordered electronics retailers in the country to stop sales and distribution of the dongle called PS Jailbreak, which we told you about last week. Court documents indicate the injunction will remain in place until a hearing scheduled for Tuesday that could determine the permanent fate of the modchip in Australia, and have consequences for the device in other countries, as well.

Australian retailer Quantronics, one of three respondents named in court documents filed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, currently lists the $170 product as “no stock,” but details on the PS3 modchip remain on the site.

Earlier, reports the site PS3News, Quantronics posted a notice stating it would not:

• Import the PS Jailbreak
• Distribute the PS Jailbreak
• Offer the dongle for sale to the public
• Provide it to another person
• Otherwise deal with the product

“Unless a continuation of orders or permanent injunction is granted to Sony Computer Entertainment, this product page will be returned and sales will resume on the 31st August 2010,” the site said.

That notice no longer appeared on the site at the time of this writing.

The site PSJailbreak.com, meanwhile, did not mention the Australian court order on Friday. It lists distributors around the world, including the three Australian outfits named in the court documents. In addition to Quantronics, they are OzModChips.com and ModSupplier.com.

Thursday’s court order also gives Sony permission to collect and test all dongles in the firms’ possession.

The PS3 runs the software on the PS Jailbreak when the dongle is inserted into the console’s USB port and booted. Besides the ability to copy and play games from the hard drive, the jailbreak is said to allow non-Sony-approved software, including homebrew apps, to run. Even online gaming is supported, and early reports stated that games running from the hard drive run faster than the same games from the optical disc drive. The hack was scheduled to ship Friday, August 27.

Intel said Friday that its third-quarter revenue will be below the company’s prior outlook.

The world’s largest chipmaker now expects third-quarter revenue to be $11 billion, plus or minus $200 million, compared with the previous expectation of between $11.2 and $12 billion.

Revenue has been squeezed by weaker than expected demand for consumer PCs in “mature” markets, but inventories across the supply chain appear to be in-line with the company’s revised expectations, Intel said.

That jibes with a cautious forecast for the third quarter from IDC. The market researcher said last week that global market demand for processors is expected to be weak in August.

Intel’s expectation for third-quarter gross margin, a key profit indicator, is now 66 percent, plus or minus a point, lower than the previous expectation of 67 percent, plus or minus a couple of points. “The impact of lower volume is being partially offset by slightly higher average selling prices stemming from solid enterprise demand,” Intel said.

All other expectations for the third quarter remain unchanged. The outlook for the third quarter does not include the effect of any acquisitions, divestitures or similar transactions that may be completed after Aug. 26.

Intel said last week that it plans to buy security software company McAfee for more than $7 billion, a deal that Intel expects to close by year’s end. It also has a deal in the works to acquire the cable modem unit of Texas Instruments for an undisclosed sum, with the assumption that it will close in the fourth quarter.

In the quarter ended June 26, Intel earned $2.9 billion, or 51 cents a share, one of the biggest profit showings in its history.

Intel announced on Monday the first dual-core Atom processor targeted specifically at Netbooks, finally putting the same number of processing cores inside these tiny laptops as found on larger mainstream laptops.

Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba, among others, are expected to follow with new dual-core Netbooks in the coming weeks and months, according to Intel.

This is a big step for the Netbook market. Since their inception back in spring 2008, Netbooks have been powered by single-core processors. This allowed Netbook suppliers to design 10-inch-class laptops that were relatively power efficient and cheap, typically around $350.

The widely reported downside has been lackluster performance, since all processing must be funneled through one processor. The Atom performance gap with mainstream Core 2 Duo and Core i laptop processors is also due to design differences. (Mainstream laptop processors have the architecture to deliver higher-level performance.) But the fact that the Atom for Netbooks has always been single core has exacerbated the performance gap.

Intel has other reasons for moving to dual core. Low-power dual-core processors from rival Advanced Micro Devices are already appearing in Netbook-class laptops. The Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dm1z, an 11.6-inch Netbook, uses an AMD Turion II Neo dual-core processor K625 (1.5GHz) and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics processor, offering potentially stiff competition for single-core Atom Netbooks.

The new dual-core Intel N550 Atom supports DDR3 memory, another performance benefit.

Intel said it has shipped about 70 million Atom processors for Netbooks to date.

Could Windows 8 be the Windows 2000 of the 21st century? When Microsoft released Windows 2000, it was largely embraced by the corporate world, but few consumers (except hard-core geeks) ran it on their home machines. Windows 95, Windows 98, and the doomed Windows Millennium targeted the average user. A decade later, rumors and hints point to a Windows 8 that appears poised to walk the same business-centric path.

The successor to Windows 7 is probably a few years from release, but there’s already considerable speculation on what the upcoming operating system will entail. A post at Ma-Config, a French tech news site, has piqued OS-watchers’ interests, as it hinted at Windows 8′s potential business-friendly features. Analysts, including ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, are pondering the heavy focus on virtualization due to certain statements made on the French blog:

Virtual machines (VMs) become key platform components for data centers and Microsoft products such as Win8, System Center, and Azure.

On the website of Microsoft Research, we learn that virtualization should be one of the key components of Windows 8. It seems to confirm that Bernard Ourghanlian, technical and security director at Microsoft France, interviewed on the site itrmanager in March 2009. Version 3 Hyper-V is now scheduled run on workstations and Windows 8 only.

Virtualization is certainly one of the more intriguing potential Windows 8 features, one that could drastically improve the IT/developer, business user, and cloud-computing experiences. Here are the potential improvements that Windows 8′s virtualization can bring to the business sector.

IT and Developer Benefits
If virtualization is indeed the core of Windows 8, IT departments and developers will see a number of benefits. The new architecture (possibly with a hypervisor, a software technology that makes virtualization possible), applications would be isolated and no longer intertwined with the operating system. This could make for a lightweight and high-performance desktop operating system, as the OS would reside locally and other applications would be delivered virtually. Although the debate continues as to whether virtual machines are safer from attack than physical ones, Ma-Config’s post points out that the hypervisor would be secure from attacks when paired with a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip.

This virtualization would make it a breeze to upgrade to a new version of Windows without worrying about compatibility and driver issues. It also means users could potentially run other operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS X alongside Windows 8.

Plus, the ability to stream applications within Windows 8 (which could conceivably happen via application virtualization much like Microsoft’s Application Virtualization) without having to setup additional hardware, software or change an infrastructure would make for the ultimate in end-user control in an IT business environment without a lot of pain or additional cost.

Business User Benefits
Business users may have the ability to have the virtual machines updated when they are turned off (sparing, for example, a work interruption) and Windows Update may include the ability to update third-party applications. Virtualization would also let users try out applications without having to uninstall and install them—a plus for software developers, as well. The lighter operating system means that boot time will likely be much shorter, too.

Cloud Computing Benefits
Forget about the traditional on-premise server as you know it. Windows 8 could be the perfect client OS for a revamped Window ecosystem, which would include both virtualizations and hosted cloud infrastructures using Microsoft’s Azure platform. Virtualization could serve as a data center’s private cloud, and Azure may give businesses the ability to scale and have sophisticated hosted infrastructures that would be very expensive to deploy and maintain on-site. Virtualized servers (already possible with Hyper-V) may become far more commonplace.

Early Days
The virtualization benefits, as described, could radically change the way companies operate. Microsoft’s new focus means that Redmond will most likely peddle Windows 8 to businesses, which may make it the first OS that finally gets the majority of companies on board with virtualization and cloud computing—and make those new platforms as ubiquitous and familiar as the client/server on-premise model that has dominated business for years.

Of course, this is all speculation, based on rumors and leaks. Even granting that what we think we know is right, Windows 8 is probably at least a couple years from release, and Microsoft is famous for the extent to which its projects can change in development. Witness, most famously, Windows Vista. Rest assured, we’ll be looking closely at the details as they continue to emerge.

After all, it was only a couple of years ago that everyone (including myself) had essentially written off the long-running show. At the same time, my video game industry contacts are telling me there’s still a sense of nervousness among those who actually have to sign the checks to pay for the event.

The reason for the negative vibes over the past few years? A run-up of increasing costs and bombast in the first half of the last decade led game publishers (who would spend millions building essentially small walled cities inside the Los Angeles Convention Center) to conclude they simply weren’t getting their money’s worth from the show. Especially, because unlike traditional trade shows, the focus of E3 over the years shifted away from deal-making between publishers and buyers, and it became strictly a press event, designed to generate headlines and feed a voracious public appetite for video game news.

The result was a pullback, first to a smaller invite-only show in Santa Monica (which, looking back, was actually a fairly pleasant overall experience), then to a ghost town of a deserted convention center, with tiny attendance and underwhelming reviews. After that, 2009 marked something of an about-face, about half the size of the classic E3 show, and this year promises to be even bigger.

But, something happened in those intervening fallow years that makes me wonder if the idea of a giant singular press event masquerading as a trade show is something we still need. For a decade, having all the games and game publishers under one roof allowed us to get face time with products and people, and generate stories for the rest of the year (in addition to a few well-timed write-ups during the show itself).

But while E3 shrunk, almost out of existence, then clawed its way back to relevance, the way we cover technology news had profoundly changed. We now live in the liveblog era, where news happens in real time, with an endless stream of tweets, blogs, video streams, and photo feeds. These all make for great reading, and an excellent realtime reading of the group zeitgeist of thousands of bloggers and reporters, but it leaves little time for extended behind-closed-doors discussions with game makers about projects that one may not be able to write about or acknowledge for months (or years in some cases).

All this means the focus of E3 for game publishers has become generating a quick burst of instant news, and dominating the conversation for the week. Hence the increasing importance of the big three press conferences — Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft (and Microsoft’s daily evening press events) — all designed to generate a Twitter-clogging stream of coverage.

The companies displaying their wares at E3 are smart enough to realize a week of frenzied quick-hit blog posts won’t have a particularly long tail in the public memory. That’s why nearly every publisher brings its entire game lineup to New York either right before or right after E3 for an in-depth press tour. It’s at these kind of low-key, off-the-grid meetings that the narrative for the all-important holiday season is discovered, not during a three-day event that feels more like a fanfest then a trade show.

Which leads to my modest proposal. The E3 show has survived pit-stops in Santa Monica and Atlanta, a near-desertion by its participating companies, and a couple of years of minimal attendance — but just barely. Since E3 already looks and feels a lot like a fan event such as Comic-Con, why not throw open the doors to the public and make it the World’s Fair of video games? It’s an open secret that the halls have always been crowded with snuck-in friends and fans, so why not make it official? Do that, make it a destination event, and charge for tickets at the door, and we’ll never have to ask if E3 can survive again.

LimeWire lives another day.

The besieged file-sharing service will likely stay in business a minimum of two weeks. During a hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood gave Lime Wire lawyers two weeks to respond to a motion filed Friday by the music industry to close down LimeWire.

Last month, Wood granted summary judgment for the Recording Industry Association of America and found Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton liable of copyright infringement. In papers filed Friday, the RIAA told Wood that every day LimeWire is available to the public, irreparable harm is done to the four top record companies.

The top record companies accused LimeWire of violating copyright law in a complaint filed August 2006.

Gorton and Lime Group have made millions of dollars from the service, but legal experts predicted that LimeWire will soon meet its end. Michael Sommer, an attorney representing Lime Group, asked Wood for two additional weeks to file a response to the RIAA’s request for a permanent injunction, but she denied it.

Once Lime Wire has responded, the RIAA gets two weeks to respond to that filing, but Wood could rule anytime after she receives Lime Wire’s response.

Following the hearing, Lime Wire released a statement.

“We feel a permanent injunction is not the best course of action,” the company said. “It could hold back the creation of new digita-music technologies that LimeWire is in the process of developing, and [it] does not benefit the industry as a whole. Following today’s court appearance, we will be submitting our opposition brief.”

RIAA attorneys started looking ahead for when the court addresses the issue of damages. The RIAA told the judge that it believes it has the right to ask Lime Wire for information on the net worth of all the defendants, including Gorton. The RIAA has accused Gorton of trying to stash money in a family trust try to block the labels from getting to it.

The damage award, in this case, could top a billion dollars, the RIAA said.

Google Wave

(Credit: Google)

The Google service brought a social dimension when it arrived with much fanfare a half year ago, but in that domain, it was overshadowed by Google Buzz. Buzz, built directly into the widely used Gmail, had a much better built-in user base from the start.

Making Wave public could help restore its fortunes.

“It’s clear from the invaluable feedback we’ve received that Wave is a great place to get work done, in particular for teams working together on projects that involve lots of discussion and close coordination,” Google Wave product manager Stephanie Hannon said Wednesday in a blog post. “If you tried Google Wave out a while ago and found it not quite ready for real use, now is a good time to come back for a second try.”

Google is making Wave freely available to Google Apps users, too. “Google Wave is about getting work done,” said Lars Rasmussen, a Wave leader.

Wang, the “planetbeing” member of the a group called the iPhone Dev Team devoted to hacking iPhones, on Wednesday posted a video demonstrating Android on an iPhone.

The demo shows the boot process–complete with the Tux Linux mascot–and Wang using Android for browsing, receiving a text message, answering a phone call, and playing music. The phone is set up with a dual-boot configuration and indeed the video begins with the device running iPhone OS.

“It’s not really production-quality yet,” Wang said on the video. “I’d say it’s alpha quality. But pretty much everything works.”

The Android-on-iPhone hack is a notable technical accomplishment, but it’s not likely to transform the industry or alter what mainstream users do. It does indicate, though, that the hacking ethos is alive and well despite Apple’s attempts to keep its mobile phone locked down.

Wang has been working since at least 2008 to boot Linux on the iPhone, according to his blog. The demonstration uses a first-generation iPhone, but newer models should be supported at some point.

“It should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GS will take more work,” Wang said on the blog. “Hopefully with all this groundwork laid out, we can make Android a real alternative or supplement for iPhone users. Maybe we can finally get Flash. ”

As you might expect, there are problems with Android on the iPhone. “It’s slightly buggy because I didn’t bother to implement all the Android-specific driver extensions,” he said in the video demonstration. And it’s slow, since Wang using a debug version of Android.

He can type using a virtual keyboard, but the iPhone’s one-button interface doesn’t mesh well with Android, which runs on phones typically with five or more buttons.

“There’s a little bit of a button shortage on the iPhone,” Wang said.

Google’s Gaia, which allows people to sign in using their password once for a range of services, was compromised during a two-day attack in December, according to a New York Times report that cited a person with knowledge of an internal investigation. However, Gmail users’ passwords do not appear to have been stolen, and the company quickly initiated security changes to its networks, according to the report.

The intrusion began when a Google employee in China clicked on a link sent in an instant message that took the employee to a corrupted Web site, which allowed access to the employee’s personal computer and ultimately the computers used by a key group of software developers at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., according to the report.

Google first disclosed the theft of intellectual property in January when revealed that it and other companies were the victims of a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” aimed at gathering information about human rights activists. As a result of the attack and theft, Google announced it no longer intended to censor search results in that country and would consider leaving entirely.

Source code was stolen from more than 30 Silicon Valley companies targeted in the attacks, which Google said originated in China, though it has not revealed the specific people behind them. For its part, the Chinese government has denied any involvement.

However, tensions between the U.S. and China escalated after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally denounced Internet censorship in a January speech. China, which has stated that companies doing business in that country must respect and adhere to its laws, responded by warning that the new U.S. stance could hurt relations between the two countries.

Ultimately, Google shut down its Google.cn site and began redirecting users to Google.com.hk, its Hong Kong-based site where it can offer uncensored Chinese-language search services.